Feather Dress

I found this fabric at the end of last season and had to have it.  As a general rule I don't like fabrics with a light background, but it seems every fabric that I love recently comes on a light beige background. With this fabric I loved the feathers and all the colours so I figured for $1.99/yard I wasn't going to worry and bought myself a full 3 yards knowing I wanted this to be a dress.

   I wanted the dress to cover my shoulders and have a full skirt and a band around my waist so I started with my dolman sleeve knit shirt pattern that I used here, here and here, cut the "skirt" of the shirt 5" wide for the band and then cut a full circle skirt to knee length.

The whole thing came together really quickly.  I faced the neckline and turned the sleeves under once and left the bottom edge raw.  I tried it on and wasn't wowed....the band just didn't work.  So I took the skirt off and cut 2" off the band. Put the skirt back on and it's much better now.  I also added some fold over elastic to the lower band seam allowance just to hold up the weight of the skirt a bit.

The thing is I don't love the dress on me, something just seems slightly off with it.  I think there is a proportion issue as I know I  love this top as a top, but for some reason here it just makes me look really top heavy and wide.

Still got to love the drama of the skirt - I do think in general this dress looks a lot better with a little bit of movement.

Overall - whilst it will get worn plenty I'm sure - its certainly comfortable enough it's not going to be one of my "favourite ever" pieces.