When life throws you lemon, take it and make strawberry L E M O N A D E!
I was so excited to create the pattern as I had made something similar before and it was a HIT. I contemplated modifying the sleeves and hacking other patterns, adding a unique trim, using a solid color and adding a pieces of my favorite ankara cotton (African Print) fabric until the storm decided to visit my city, Miami, Florida. Nonetheless, I would NOT allow mother nature and Hurricane Irma to defeat me and NOT submit a beautiful dress for Challenge 2.
I planned on standing tall through Irma the storm and would make something classic that depicts my sense of style and submitted it days before the storm hit. I wasn’t quite sure if I had to evacuate to a shelter and did NOT want to wait until last minute just in case I had to leave home on Thursday or Friday. I had less than a day to make it and knew that I had NO time to run to my local store to get all the bells and whistles needed to make the dress that I had originally had planned in my head.
Fall knit prints are non existent in my stash and I had to settle for this beautiful Scuba Knit that I had purchased at JoAnn Fabrics. I love cutting into floral prints as I love perfect alignment of colors or pattern details and felt this was perfect for fall based on the color palette. I am definitely planning on wearing this to a BRUNCH in early October that I had planned on attending this past Sunday. I wanted to make sure that my layout was absolutely perfect and that the center would depict the flow of fall flowers from the center neckline to the bottom of the front. Moreover, being an island girl and a Floridian, fall here is like summer as we wear sandals most time of the year and boots is NOT a big trend unless the temperature drops to the 60s.
I chose to do view A as it was, classic with a perfect length for transitioning to fall here in South Florida. To top it off, the fit would show off just enough of my curves. I opted to grade the size to accommodate my hips and adjusted it to fit my sense of style. Modifications were a must to have a clean smooth fitted silhouette. I decided to preserve the beauty of this classic pattern focusing more on the fit and made slight modifications to the sleeves as most of my local family owned fabric stores were closed where I would purchase trimmings.
Pattern Modifications Graded the size 8 and 10 based on the finished measurement on the pattern (Decided to cut a size smaller as I wanted a more fitted look)
Added 4 inches to the length of VIEW A based on my height to fall right at the knee Added a BELL sleeve to draw less attention to the hips and to elongate my physique Bell long sleeves (Doubled the width of the sleeve, gathered it adding more gathers to the center and attached it to the sleeves)
The FIT and PRINT
I am happy with the fit, the print and the simplicity of the dress with the modifications of the sleeves. The dress fits amazing and I loved the way it turned out even with the challenges that I had to face. Having been through a few hurricanes (Andrew and Gilbert) and other life challenges, I have learned that life still goes on no matter your circumstances may be. Irma may have caused the stores to close and may have put a damper in my spirit but I refused to allow it to get the better of me. There are so many challenges and setbacks in this world, but I wanted to create my favourite fall dress style using this classic fall print for my upcoming brunch.
Thanks for stopping by and ONE LOVE!!!