M7569 #thelittlereddressproject 2018

M7569 – #thelittlereddressproject

When I heard about The Little Red Dress Project hosted by Renata over at The Twilight Stitcher and her co host @rosabella.angelica, honestly I wasn’t too excited because I am so scared of red. Being an extreme introvert, red scares the living daylight out of me. I felt it was too bold, too bright and would draw too much attention. I stayed away from red literally all my life. Funny enough, I think my family feels the same way; I don’t recall seeing much red in my house while growing up.

I really wanted to participate in the project though so I had to suck it all up and get my hands on some red fabric. I knew I wanted a really elegant dress so I immediately headed to the beaded lace section. Well obviously I have expensive taste since the one fabric I fell in love with rang in at $99.00 per yard. This was not an option sorry! I then looked at velvet but I remember seeing so many velvet dresses for last year’s entries, I felt it was overdone so I walked away from those as well. By now I was completely frustrated as you’d imagine. Lo and behold, I just had to pick the boldest red fabric that exists, reversible sequins! I don’t know what I was thinking; I’m not brave enough to even wear a red t shirt!

So then I had to go on the pattern hunt. Mind you, I’ve never sewn sequin fabric before and I had no idea what I was doing. The one thing I was sure of is that it needed to be lined, otherwise I would be covered in rashes in two seconds. I settled on McCall’s M7569, Misses’ Column and Trumpet Dresses with Bodice and Sleeve Variations. Only after buying the pattern and reading the instructions, I realized the way this dress is lined would not help my cause in any way. You sew the outer fabric and lining seams together, so both fabrics show in the seam allowance. Umm… what’s the point of lining it then? This is when I realized I had more work on my hands that I thought. After a few google sessions, I figured out how to line it completely without any seam allowances exposed on the inside and the work began.

I had to make a few changes. Here are my M7569 – #thelittlereddressproject alterations:

1. I used 5/8 inch elastic as bias binding for the neckline since just turning it over as instructed would have never worked for sequin fabric.
2. I wanted a midi length dress but at the last minute realized I didn’t have enough fabric and had to shorten it. It is longer than the short skirt on the pattern but shorter than the midi dress I wanted.
3. I did a heart cutout on the back. In Caribbean language, “I dunno what fly up in my head”! It was sort of a headache to get the lining right with this part plus I ended up not liking the heart anyway.
4. I did not hem the sleeve flounces. Really didn’t see the need to try to turn over the sequin fabric and make a narrow hem. That sounded like hell on earth.

All in all, I’ll say the dress turned out okay. My favourite detail is the movement of the sleeves in the wind. It was quite a fight to get on and off a thick heavy sequin dress with no closures but I survived. I had a successful shoot although I was ill and very bloated. What I’ve learned is that red is just not my colour. Unfortunately, I can’t see myself ever wearing this dress out in public. I still want to try the velvet in a burgundy/wine colour; this seems more like my thing. Baby steps!

Toodle-loo

Keira

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For More Sewing Fun, Check Out My Other Looks Here