Burda Style For people who sew

Description

This dress has been in my mind, on the tip of my tongue for a long time. At least I’ve had some ideas to make a reversible dress and to use tie-dye in a dress for ages. As the title suggests it came together finally thanks to two notions I’ve had in my stack for a while, but never thought to combine.

Once upon a time I bought a reversible zip, but then couldn’t decide how to make the most of it in a simple dress. On a separate occasion I also bought this collar, but never used it as I couldn’t decide if I liked the plain black (wrong) side or the chain embellished side….It foolishly never struck me to combine the two, until I was doodling in my sketchbook and had something of a revelation.

I rushed to my fabric and dye stash and found this purple/blue/silvery fabric which I loved against the black for a posh dress. I also had some really soft cream cotton which was a bit discoloured from when I first washed it with other fabrics, so I knew it would be perfect to tie dye. I basically knotted the whole piece of fabric and dunked it in some navy dye, left it for 10 mins or so and then rinsed out so that there’s still more cream than blue – I wanted quite a contrast between both sides. Anyway, once that was all done I made a pattern to fit around the collar and away I went!

It’s basically 2 separate dresses attached around the neckline and armholes and with a reversible zip sandwiched in the center back. The block colour version has a gathered rectangle for the skirt and the tie-dye has a full circle skirt. The blue hangs slightly below the circle skirt.

I’m going to wear the block colour side to see Phantom of the Opera at the theatre tomorrow! So excited! Happy New Year all!

Difficulty

Intermediate

Categories

For

Women

Garment Type

Dress

Style

Vintage, Romantic