Wild Animal Holidaywear

This dress kind of shocked me with its Christmas-y vibe. When my daughter asked me to make her a dress influenced by a Versace coat that she saw in Vogue, the coat did not look to me like holiday wear at all. It just looked cool. I was very surprised at how “holiday” the dress looks.

I dyed the velvet myself. It started out as a white fabric from the remnant bin. Look at this post if you would like to see what the yardage looked like, post-dye and pre-cut.

The pattern I used is loosely based on a dress in the book “Girly Style Wardrobe.” But I made so many changes to it that maybe I should just say I drafted it myself. I especially like the front yoke, band, and waist piece that is cut all-in-one, which came from me and is not to be found in the original pattern.

Front detail. Notice that the yoke, front band, and facing are cut all-in-one. My daughter picked the buttons. I was a little put out with the third one, which is large with some depth to it. It would have needed a buttonhole that was larger than I was comfortable with. So I only made buttonholes for the top 2 buttons. I sewed the other buttons through all thicknesses to hold the center front together.

back

facing detail. The velvet fabric is very thick and stretchy, so I used some silk taffeta for the facing.

Photo of the Vogue photo that my daughter saw

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