2018 Dress a Month Sewalong #4, #5, and #6: A Self-Drafted Three-fer

Continuing on with the Dress a Month Sewalong on Stitcher's Guild, I drafted a pattern, using as inspiration a zip-front knit dress seen at an Asheville, North Carolina boutique while out gallivanting. It looked so simple yet so effective at shaping a flattering silhouette, I was eager to make it up in several versions.

I came home, drafted a pattern, added markings for back darts (not in the original) and a short front zipper, and was on my way.

Dress#4
My wearable muslin is a coppery brown patterned slinky fabric from the depths of my stash. I bought it at Vogue Fabrics back in the 90s. Seriously.

 I ran out of fabric so made the sleeves short with cuffs.

Dress #5
Then, continuing on with the theme of sewing warmer winter lounging dresses (see previous posts), I made up this one from a waffle weave knit fabric purchased from Mood Fabrics a year or more ago:

Dress #6
Finally, I wanted to play with a shorter version and came up with this sparkly cocktail dress made from fabric purchased at Fabricmartfabrics.com maybe 2 years ago:

 

 

Self-Drafted Pattern Pieces: 
One could use any cut-on sleeve top pattern. I drafted mine with the help of an oversized tee.

I tilted the fisheye dart just slightly toward the center at the top to accommodate my narrow shoulders.

For the dresses I made, the short version takes 2 yards and the long version takes 3 yards of 60 inch wide fabric. 

Notes:

• All knit neckline bindings were inserted using Sarah Veblen's foolproof method.
• The zippers were purchased from www.zprz.com and www.zipperstop.com .
  
  • I had to shorten the brown one, so I used this Craftsy tutorial for directions on shortening a metal zipper.
• The black zipper is a doll zipper, already purchased short like this.
• The plastic rhinestone zipper could not be shortened except by cutting off  at the top and folding/stitching it to itself on the inside.
  
• For the brown and black/teal long dresses, I attached de-hooked dangle earrings for the zipper pulls.
  

So bam, bam, bam, three more dresses are added to my Dress a Month group. Yay! This will give me some breathing space for other sewing projects and for some upcoming houseguest visits and travel in the next couple of months.