Burda Style For people who sew
Description
A friend of mine ran a sustainable design competition recently and I entered this dress.
I set myself the challenge of making a dress with a remnant that was just over 1 metre. I think this fabric has been sitting in my mum’s cupboard since I was in primary school!
The dress was based loosely on a pattern from “Stylish Dress Book.” I changed the neckline to a scoop and altered the sleeve. The pattern called for 2.5metres of fabric and it occurred to me that the suggested fabric lengths are often very conservative! I did have to amend the pattern a little to make it fit but didn’t have to make any major changes, considering how much fabric I saved.
Since sustainability was the objective, I decided to add the sleeve detail with the offcuts, to minimize wastage. I’m so glad I did because I think it gives the dress some character. I feel quite proud of my patternless adaption. It just goes to show that thinking about sustainability doesn’t hinder, but can provide some interesting design opportunities!
Unfortunately, I didn’t win but I do have a great dress that I love wearing! Plus, I learned a thing or two about sustainable sewing.
I blogged about the competition and a couple of sustainable designers here if you’re interested: http://moleskine-diary.blogspot.com/2011/05/future-fashion-now.html
Material Notes
Printed cotton.
Difficulty
Novice
Categories
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Jun 19, 2011, 05.23 PMby ktmacca
Looks fantastic; very inspiring!
Jun 19, 2011, 01.16 PMby Priscilla Folley
Agree with the two girls here and let me tell you: the sleeves are fantastic. Great job! I’m off to check out your blog now. =)
Jun 19, 2011, 11.18 AMby ichigogirl
Wow, I’ve ofteh thought that it seems like patterns call for more fabric than needed but to be able to use one that calls for 2,5 when you’ve only got 1, that’s amazing! The shoulder detail makes it very contemporary, really nice dress!
Jun 19, 2011, 06.11 AMby emlynn
lovely! So nice to see that this came from such a little amount of fabric, I’ve had 1 metre remnants that have been hanging around for ages because I’m too scared to cut it and find I’ve done it wrong, this has inspired me to just take the plunge and make things with them!