Sunday 19 October 2014

Midnight Summer Coppelia

Just over a month ago, I joined The Frankenpattern Contest on pattern review and set to looking for the most appropriate patterns to mash together.  After working through a number of options I settled on a couple of Papercut Patterns which would produce my first wrap dress.

Midnight Summer Coppelia

I took the skirt (and tie) from the Midnight Summer Dream, a garden party summer wrap dress, and the Coppelia, ballet style raglan sleeve wrap cardi, and morphed these into a Spring appropriate wrap dress.

Midnight Summer Coppelia

The skirt of the Midnight Summer Dream was fuller than I wanted so I reduced the fullness by taking out a wedge of 3-1/2" at the skirt side.  This resulted in more of an A-Line skirt - thanks to a slight breeze in the next photo for capturing the skirt shape.

Midnight Summer Coppelia

The top and the skirt came together pretty seamlessly.  I measured bottom of cardi and top of skirt and only had to reduce the cardi by 1-3/4", so I just took that from the narrow end of the wrap.  I kinda followed the pattern instructions for the Midnight Summer Dress which called for the wrap ties to be attached to the narrow end of the top, where it meets the skirt.

There is a small slit in the side seam of the top, just above the waist seam for the tie of the under-wrap.... nothing to complicated, however I put the slit in the wrong side, so the dress wraps the wrong way around!  Is there actually a right way or wrong way to wrap?

Midnight Summer Coppelia


I picked up this snake skin cotton knit from The Fabric Store sale and paired it up with some black merino for the contrast, to break up the print.  The fabric is really light weight and with skirt cut on the bias it dropped quite a bit after being hung for a few days.  It almost looked like a high/low skirt! But I think I've over corrected just a tad too much and the back is now a fraction shorter then the front - you'll only ever notice if I stood still at all, luckily I don't :-)

Because I fluffed around for so long with the hem, and I suck at getting my photos sorted, I missed the deadline for The Pattern Review contest :-(  Never to mind, I had fun working on this one, main thing right!

More photos on my Flickr -->



12 comments:

  1. Great dress! :-) Love the idea of mixing up those two patterns, and the result is great on you. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kat, I couldn't believe how both patterns came together so easily.

      Delete
  2. This joined up nicely. No visible bolts or hinges!! Love your fabric choice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Gail, I'm pretty happy at how this came together, although I think the bodice could have been about a 1/2" shorter. Definitely wearable!

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Thanks - a little disappointment in myself for missing the deadline, that will teach me for fluffing around too much!

      Delete
  4. It looks lovely! I like the fabric combinations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks - I it might have been a bit too much animal print without a little something to break it up.

      Delete
  5. Ooo I really like this and the black contrast looks fab. I always love a bit of merino lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I'll probably get a bit more wear out of it once the weather warms up just a tad :-)

      Delete
  6. Love this! As always, you're looking super stylish and elegant.

    ReplyDelete