Biblioball Photo Dress.

This summer I spent some time drafting patterns for clothes that really fit me, using the advice in Cal Patch‘s excellent book, Design-It-Yourself Clothes.  And I can tell that efforts are paying off, because I recently created a new dress pretty much from scratch—though with heaps of design inspiration from Oliver+S’s School Photo Dress pattern for a little girl’s dress.

I love the details on this pattern–cuffed sleeves and standup collar on the bias, a-line silhouette, yoke, and front kangaroo pocket—and I could see its potential for adult wearers.  Knowing how clear and understandable Liesl Gibson makes her pattern sewing instructions (you can learn so much following her guidance), I decided to give it a go. I did skip the kangaroo pocket (thinking it might neither so cute nor so slimming on a near-forty-year-old) but otherwise I drafted my own pieces and then followed along, step by step, with the construction.

After first making a muslin (yes, I’m learning), I cut and sewed up the final version using some grey and lavender dotted wool of uncertain vintage that I unearthed on a visit to Maxie’s Daughter while in Philadelphia this fall. And this past weekend, I wore my dress to the Desk Set‘s Biblioball, where my husband and I had our portrait taken.  An appropriate adult alternative to a School Photo, I think.

Next up in my dressmaking, once I find the right fabric: a dress made using the Uniform Project pattern, which arrived in my mailbox tucked inside its little tote a few weeks ago!  But in the meantime, there is knitting, reading, and holiday merrymaking.