Inspired by Vivienne Westwood - Around the World

This is the Layer dress from Teach me Fashion.  I am based in the UK and Teach me Fashion is I believe in Australia. I made this dress once before. That time I exactly followed the pattern. This time I did not have enough fabric really so I did not use the facing but instead attached a stand collar to neaten the neckline and me-made bias binding for the armholes which I made from a different fabric. I could not make bias from the same fabric since I had only a few strips left and used these on the hem.

This dress is made from upholstery grade sateen of unknown fibre ( pale blue) and part of an Ikea check blanket ( the overlay).  My first dress was stretch faux leather fabric so I made a bigger size for this because I need to be able to move and this is non-stretch fabric. I think this is actually the better dress of the two so far.

 I decided not to have the overlay doubled like the pattern ( and my first dress) because I wanted to make use of the fringed edges of my blanket, so I cut this as a single layer but then decided to add a second layer which is a bit shorter accross the front of the dress and try to offset the checks - so the opposite of pattern matching. It kind of works over most of the overlay.

Then because the original dress is very short and I am really a bit too old for this I decided to leave the hem unfinished to make it slightly longer and then make use of the frayed edges. It very much reminds me of Vivienne Westwood designs which I have always liked.

But when I cut out the back of the dress I realised I had slightly under-estimated my length. The front piece was shorter so I added a small strip to make the front and back pieces the same length making even more of a feature (hopefully) of my frayed edges.

Then I had just a tiny strip of fabric left so then I added what I had left of this fabric as one strip all the way around. I ripped the fabric to make the frayed edges as directed in the free pattern for the Vivienne Westwood shirt which I made in the summer. Then pressed them to make them as flat and even as possible, pinned and sewed. 

 Its got a wintery tartan feel. Since its rapidly feeling like winter in the UK this is going to be perfect.

I nearly did not finish this in time to post as part of #TMS Around the World because I could not decide what to do about the armholes. I did consider attempting to draft sleeves in the check fabric but decided to go with me-made bias instead. I think it works OK.

I would have preferred the neatness of finishing it like the first dress I made because the facings really make for a very professional finish but with no matching fabric this was impossible.

Thanks for visiting

Bracken