So a few months ago, my ballet teacher announced she was organizing an outing to see Jewels at Boston Ballet. I dug out my green dupioni silk dress I made for my sister’s wedding in 2022, was delighted that it fit again post baby #2, and that was that.
And then a week before the ballet, my brain decided that wouldn’t it be fun if I made a new dress to wear though. I had a bolt of luscious black velvet a friend gave me and shoulder bows on the brain. These were my inspo.
I briefly entertained the idea of going back to one of the old favorites but in the end I decided to just stick with the same pattern as the original green dress, which I drafted from my Cañada sloper and I was about 82% confident would fit my boobs.
For the skirt, I didn’t quite have enough fabric to do a full circle so it’s basically like 90% of a circle skirt. That meant my side seams were either going to be slightly forward or slightly backward. I decided to put them back more so you wouldn’t see the seams from the front.
And then I decided that the velvet looked a bit limp and sad so I added some interfacing to the hem and stitched horsehair braid all around.
Of course, pushing the skirt side seams slightly backward meant that I couldn’t really add pockets without them being weirdly placed, so I decided to just sew a matching little clutch. I did a quick search on Pinterest for something cute but not too complicated and found this one.
I was actually extremely impressed with myself for pulling this together considering it was the night before the ballet and I basically just origamied some tracing paper and crossed my fingers.
I used the same fabrics as the dress so it would match.
The foldy down part is a bit too curved and the bottom is a bit wobbly but I’m pleased! I also made a wrist strap thing that I forgot to take a photo of.
Anyway, I’m extremely relieved that I got it done on time. I would’ve frozen my ass off in the green dress. And it was such a fun evening!
