Monday, February 4, 2013

Ready-to-wear inspiration: Urban Outfitters dress

My most active Pinterest board is definitely my "Sewing Inspiration" board. I use it for two big categories: sewing patterns and ready-to-wear clothing that I want to copy. (I'll probably write a whole post about copying at a later date, but for now let's just say I've made my moral peace with it.)

Somehow I ended up on Urban Outfitters' email list, even though I've never bought clothing there. I didn't even know there was a store in my city until one of my friends took me there a few years ago. A LOT of their clothing is so trendy I would never, ever spend real money on it, much less wear it. But they often have dresses that I adore, like this one:


I couldn't click fast enough when I saw this one! The color grabbed me initially, as I'm a huge sucker for coral. I think I read somewhere that coral is the most universally flattering color. That sounds right, anyway. But it does come in many other lovely colors as well, if you'd rather not universally flatter yourself for some reason.

I really like the tulip sleeve, the pockets, and the back also has an interesting slit. According to the UO description, it's made from polyester chiffon. I love it so much I made this moodboard:

Images from UO. 
Moodboard made using Moodboard Lite app for iPad.

While I'd be thrilled to find a lovely silk chiffon to recreate this look, I'm not a gazillionaire with a personal dry cleaner. Even if I were, AB would instantly spit up on it, or one of our pets would rip it. It's why we can't have nice things. I've browsed the polyester chiffons at Jo-Ann's and I have a few in mind for whenever I decide to tackle this project. I may even cut into a poly chiffon bridesmaid's dress that is a similar pink as above. I plan to Frankenpattern the top and bottom, and then to use a tutorial I found online for tulip sleeves. For the top, I will use the free Sorbetto top pattern from Colette Patterns, and for the skirt I'll use McCall's 6288. I actually have a third pattern, Vogue 1224, which uses a similar elastic waist, so I'll probably refer to the instructions there to attach the top and bottom.

Since I don't NEED a dress like this, it's having a hard time making it to the top of my priority list. I do hope to get to it...sometime this year!

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