Shoe and Dress Update

Finally! The shoe decision was made, and yet I still managed to pack 4 pairs in my carry-on. And still wished I had my sneakers. But let's get to the dress first. You saw the picture on the mall and it was covered by the lovely green raincoat. How about the end result and just a few details (like what pattern is it, after all!).

Jacket: Vogue 8640. Originally blogged here. I shortened the length by 2" to make it less weird and somewhat wearable, but the honest truth is this is not a good shape jacket for me. Too boxy. I obviously forgot that I was not shaped like the drawing on the pattern... i.e., model tall and thin.

Dress: Bodice is McCall's 7569, a vintage pattern from 1964. Skirt is the Colette Macaron.

Fabric: from fabric.com. A cotton/linen blend designed by Valori Wells for Free Spirit. These 2 patterns were from the same collection which is a couple of years old, and now the remaining bits are on clearance.

The Starting Point:

 (which I had in my Etsy shop, but is now sold)

And my dress:

Many of the sizing changes were mentioned in this post, complete with pictures of the muslins, and the altered pattern pieces, so I won't repeat myself here. I will mention that instead of the ruffle from the pattern, I used self made piping from scraps from the jacket.

The piping went around the armscyes and the neckline, and down the back. Subtle, but I like it. Don't you love the birds?!

I tacked the crossover in the back just to avoid any gaping, though I don't think there would be any.

An alternate jacket (and possibly a better look than the jacket I made)... a linen Talbots blazer I bought a few years ago, that I don't think I've ever worn:

And the shoes?

Well, I wore the wedding shoes for the Friday graduation, but took them off after the walk to the restaurant. Those were seriously not walking through the city shoes. Last Sunday was drizzly in Washington, DC, and tromping across the Mall was way better in these closed toe, T-strap Naturalizers, with a sensible 2" chunky heel.

Finally... pockets!

Yeah. Barrett walked up to check out the photoshoot, and I was bracing for the "kiss".

Puppy love!