Last minute sewing

I've been meaning to make myself a new "black" dress all fall for my husbands staff Christmas party. Well in true last minute panic, I nearly finished the dress last night. First the dress isn't black, its navy (Found two dress length pieces of navy in my stash and no black. So its a Navy crepe dress. I lined it with yucky grey lining (but it really needed lining and it was in my stash!).


Then to decide on a pattern - I choose one from my stash - I would have prefered to use something from Ottobre, but they didn't have anything that would work... I used Simplicity 9441 (probably long OOP, copyright 1995!) that I had made in '96 or '97. It is a flared princess dress with a fitted waist. I had to modify the "shape" of the pattern as my waist isn't quite as tiny as it was then, and for a slightly larger bust. Its a good thing I read the instructions, as the sleeves are set very differently. The front and back are sewn at shoulders, the princess-side panels are sewn at the side seam, with the sleeve attached, then the sleeve/side panel are sewn to the front & back pieces all together!

The dress is currently hanging waiting to be hemmed. I will hem once Alexandra is at school.