The Day and Night Dress Challenge – Reveal!

It’s finally here! The Day and Night Dress Challenge is well under way and it’s my turn to share what I made!

The Day Dress

I bring you my very first Grainline Alder shirtdress! I’ve had my eye on this pattern for a while and finally bought it during their 2016 Black Friday sale. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind what pattern I was going to make for the day dress when Elizabeth contacted me about the challenge.

I made View B, AKA the “Butt Ruffle” view. I think everyone can benefit from a butt ruffle as it’s super cute and it leaves plenty of space for that junk in the trunk. Also, that hemline is to DIE FOR. I love unique hems and the Alder has this cool hem that dips in the front, comes up a little on the sides to show off some leg, then swoops lower in the back to ensure you can bend down as low as you want and not show anyone what color panties you’re wearing. 😉

I made a straight size 8 and love how I didn’t have to do any pattern tweaking at all. The Alder is supposed to be loose-fitting, which makes sizing easier since all you really need to worry about is fitting the bust.

The fabric is a Robert Kaufman quilted chambray from Cali Fabrics. The squares are pre-serged together, which I thought would make it difficult to sew. It turned out not to be too bad, although I struggled with a couple of seams that were pretty thick during construction because of the extra serging. It wasn’t enough to make me quit or pull out my hair, though!

I love the worn-in, wonky look of this chambray and it’s as comfortable as it looks! I know it doesn’t make much sense to make a summer dress in the winter, but this is southern Arizona we’re talking about here and I was fairly comfortable taking pictures outside like this when the temperature was in the 60’s (F).

I was so excited about this dress that I already wore it to work on a casual day, but I layered underneath with a black thermal shirt and leggings. It worked perfectly and I got a lot of compliments on the dress!

I usually don’t wear my button-up tops or dresses buttoned all the way up, but the drafting of the Alder is fabulous and the collar is both easy to create and comfortable to wear. I’ll more than likely wear the top button unbuttoned when summer hits, though.

The buttons were salvaged from a shirt DD was tossing out. I love how they go perfectly with this dress!

This is definitely a different silhouette for me, but I think the Alder has a good balance of comfort and style. Baggy without looking like a bag lady. There will definitely be more of these in my future!

The Night Dress

OK so let me start off by saying that I took some creative liberty with the night dress. The rules state it has to be black and pretty dressy for a nighttime soiree. Of course I’m a rebel who is obsessed with cats, so I bring you my inspiration of Audrey Hepburn: Cat Lady.

Wow, so Fancy (Feast!)

The fabric was purchased on my trip to Japan last year. At the time, I figured I would make some kind of dress out of it, so I’m happy it’s finally found its purpose. It’s a cotton fabric that is probably meant for quilting, but there was a little stretch to it and the quality is so nice. I lined the whole dress with Bemberg Rayon, so it almost literally feels like I’m being hugged by kittens!

I Franken-patterned the top of Simplicity 1873 with the Sewaholic Cambie bottom. The Cambie top would have been cute for this dress, but I know I’ll wear this to work a lot (and my Broadway in Tucson shows!) and I’m constantly worried about flashing people when I bend over in the Cambie top. So the high neckline of Simplicity 1873 is a winner!

I made a size 12 from both patterns but noticed the waistline of the Simplicity top ended up being smaller than the Cambie waistline, so I had to take in the skirt portion a bit.

I thought the torso in the Simplicity pattern would be too short (as they usually are for me), so I added one inch to the length. That wasn’t needed as the waistline ended up being way too low. So I created more work for myself and chopped off that extra inch, haha!

I also wanted to go for some color-blocking with this dress since the cats are CRAZY… and I kind of ran out of enough fabric to cut for a waistband in the cat fabric. Breaking up the pattern with a solid black waistline (Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton) was a good move, in my opinion. It creates a little visual interest and goes so well with my fancy black satin gloves. 😉

Other than the cats, the best part about this dress is of course the pockets! Now I can hide cat toys and cat treats in there…

My shoes have cats on them, too. You can see a close-up in my teaser post. I swear I’m not really crazy. I just really love cats and can buy whatever I want now that I’m an adult!

That is one of the many things I love about sewing – you can take a fabric that’s a little juvenile and make it suitable for adults as long as you choose the right pattern. Or is that just me and this is totally a twee dress? LOL. Whatever, YOLO!

That about wraps it up over here. I can’t thank Elizabeth enough to include me in this super fun challenge. Now I have 2 awesome new dresses to wear!

I’m excited to see all of your dresses for this challenge. See below for more information on participating! Good luck out there!!

XOXO,

RED

The Day and Night Dress Challenge Blog Tour Schedule:

Sunday, Jan 8th: Elizabeth of Elizabeth Made This, Brittany of Brittany J Jones

Monday, Jan 9th:  Maria of How Good is That?,  Tonya of Sew So Petite

Tuesday, Jan 10th: Je’Tua of Robertswife, Meg of Cookin’ and Craftin’, Melanie of Its Melanie Darling

Wednesday, Jan 11th:  Linda of Elle Gee Makes, Tee of Maggie Elaine

Thursday, Jan 12th: Bianca of Thanks I Made Them, Daniela of On the Cutting Floor

Friday, Jan 13th:  Melissa of Mahlicadesigns, Rachel of Sew Redy, Renata of Runnningnstyle, Sonja of Sewing ala Carte

Saturday, Jan 14th: Doja of Elewa blog, Judith of Judith Dee’s World, Tanya of Mrs. Hughes

Don’t forget to enter your day and night looks into the community challenge for a chance to win prizes from these wonderful sponsors:

You can enter your projects here.  Only projects that are entered through the linkup will be eligible for voting.

The linkup is available from Sunday, January 8th until Saturday, January 28th.  

Voting will be available on the entry page from January 29th-February 4th.  After all of the sponsors have been notified, the winners will be announced.

 

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