Swamp Creature Dress

Every year, I make a nice dress to wear to holiday parties. I end up going to several, and for the most part, the other people there don’t overlap, so I can wear the same dress a few times.

This dress will be this year’s holiday attire. It’s actually a dress and a blouse. The dress is made with silk ottoman, trimmed with cotton crocheted lace. The blouse is silk organza, trimmed with the same lace.

The idea came from a look from Alberta Ferretti’s fall 2015 collection, showing a dark sheer blouse under a sleeveless dark dress. It looked so cool and gothic that I wanted one. I picked some fabrics from my closet and dyed them. I dyed the silk ottoman and organza with acid dye from Dharma Trading in Moss Green. The cotton lace is dyed with Dharma Trading procion dye in I can’t remember what color.

I call it my Swamp Creature Dress because of the color scheme and because the lace coming out the hem (which is attached to the dress lining, not the blouse) kind of looks like seaweed or pond scum. Also, the silk ottoman changed dramatically after the dye process. I thought it might be ruined from the stress of multiple washings. It started out as a very formal fabric, with all the rows laying perfectly straight. After the whole dye process, the ridges were markedly wavy. I went ahead and made the dress anyway, and now I really like it. The lace coming out the hem (which is attached to the dress lining, not the blouse) kind of looks like seaweed or pond scum.

back view

I self-lined the dress

cuff

collar

seaming

hem

the crochet lace tablecloth that I cut up and dyed for the trim. I bought it at an estate sale. It’s a pretty standard item that lots of old people have.

patterns that I used. The blouse pattern is almost certainly oop. The dress pattern might still be available.

Alberta Ferretti dress (lifted from Vogue.com)