Fashion Plate: Lavish Luncheon Dress

 

I'm so excited to share my latest Fashion Plate.  It's been a while! 

This week's inspiration is ModCloth's Lavish Luncheon Dress.  I love the colorblock.  I love the pleats. I love the polka dots.  I hope you do too.  My fabric selections for this look are Moda Bella broadcloth in 30's Betty Pink and Hello Tokyo Lattice in Ebony.  Making these fashion plates is going to be really bad for my cold sheep/cotton challenge.  I CAN make it until October.  I CAN make it until October.  Yes.  I can.  I hope.  I selected Butterick 5317 as the pattern for this look.  I don't love the neckline on this pattern.  I think I've mentioned how I feel about low fronts and low backs in the same pattern.  That creates problems for me keeping the shoulders of the bodice actually on my shoulders.  If I were to make this dress, I would probably borrow the top portion of the square bodice from New Look 6020.  I can handle that one.

For the colorblock portion, it looks like the bottom section is about 6" tall, followed by a 2" patterned break, followed by a 4" solid section.  I think the best way to recreate the look of the skirt portion is to make a new length of fabric if you will and then cut the skirt pieces out of that.  So determine how much you need for your hem, add 6" plus 1/2" for a seam allowance.  I normally use a 3/4" hem, so I would need my bottom section to be at least 7.25" long. (As long as the bottom is at least that long, you will be fine.  You should have extra for waste when you are lining up and cutting out your pattern piece.)  Then you need the black patterned section, which is 2" + .5" + .5" = 3" Then you need another solid piece that is 5" (4 + .5 + .5) and another solid section enough to get you to the top of the skirt pattern piece--it looks like at least 16" to me.  You will want to cut and sew selvedge to selvedge and be as neat and accurate with your cutting and sewing as possible.  The good thing about this dress is the colorblock part is the hard part.  Otherwise, this is a very simple pattern without any crazy details.  The pleats and the colorblock truly make this look.

I hope that was helpful and you enjoyed seeing this Fashion Plate!