Lady in Red

Remember how I have a problem with buying $1 remnants from the Op-Shop?

Well, I finally put this one to good use!

We had a surprise birthday meal to attend on Friday night at a swanky restaurant.
So obviously I wanted a new dress :)

I've never actually worn a red dress before, so it was a little out of my comfort zone, but this red stretch sateen was begging to be made into a (semi) wiggle dress. I used the bodice of the Princess seamed Butterick 4443, with a few alterations from last times use in the Janet dress, and a few more because of the stretch nature of the fabric. I drafted the skirt myself with the aid of the Meringue skirt as I wanted a closer skirt than the flared one from 4443. Plus I didn't have enough fabric to work with anyway!

Apologies for the awful pictures- I couldn't for the life of me find the camera so these are dodgy iphone pics.

I felt a million dollars in it :)

When we were waiting for the birthday girl to arrive I kept squee-ing with excitement, and I got some great compliments. 

The most exciting thing (beyond the fact that this fits like a glove is the back:

Can you say heart-shaped cut out?! 

Tacky, maybe. But I love it :)

I think if I made this style of dress again I need to make the skirt a little longer, as I felt a little exposed. The original plan was longer with a kick pleat, but I ran out of fabric!

New techniques:

Cut out - worked like a dream. That section is lined with some red polkadot poplin scraps in the central section between the princess seams, to help support it and stop it stretching out of shape too much. This was probably some of the oldest fabric in my stash, originally used in this bag way back in 2010. SO good to see that go!

Understitching - I'd read about this before but never really tried it. BIG MISTAKE! Totally doing this every time I sew linings/facings. It kept the facing neat and hidden and gave a good, well defined fold line. It meant I didn't have to top stitch around any of the openings, which kept the lines nice and clean.

Cost:

Fabric - $1 (plus the scrap of polkadot) 

Zip - $2.50

Hook and eyes - 30c

Pattern - already used so FREE ;)

$3.80 - Score!

Much much cheaper than the meal and the champers! Though we did manage to claw back some good money from the Casino after the meal, Well, the boy did. I'm not much of a gambler, but I did treble my money on the pokie machines- $6 profit for me :D So thats the dress covered!