dress pattern

Once upon a time I found a dress. It was the perfect dress in fit and style and I wanted to wear it every day. I think most women have a similar piece. Something that is so "just right" that you don't know how you lived without it. And I have come to the conclusion that I would probably be happy if I had a closet full of this magic dress in various colors and prints.
In an attempt to make that a reality I drafted a pattern from my perfect dress and decided to try my hand a sewing a real dress. Not a jersey t shirt dress (my usual flavor) but a fully lined, zippered, darted, legitimate dressmaker dress. I figured I would make the first try of this home made pattern out of a thrifted vintage sheet so as not to waste any good fabric if my attempt went awry.

It was a fairly simple pattern, with a wide waistband and full 10 gored skirt. I decided to add an additional pattern (tiny hot pink polka dots  after I had cut out all of the pattern pieces. It's very subtle but a fun addition.

 I had to make several tweaks as I was constructing my trial dress, but I made sure to diligently alter my pattern to reflect what I discovered but overall it only took five hours which seems pretty quick considering I added rickrack trim to the hem and hand sewed the waistband lining in. I think I will make another go but alter the bodice to have a different cut as an alternative, perhaps a sweet boat-neck  I will see how my fancy strikes me but all in all this first take on my new pattern made me feel that my dream of having a "uniform" of perfect dresses is totally within my grasp!