LLADYBIRD

i know we’re all familar with the roland mouret’s galaxy dress:

although i did not discover it until last year, it became an instant “must-have.” lucky me, vogue 8280 it an absolute, blatant rip-off, making this dress completely obtainable for my greedy hands.

let me preface this post by saying this pattern is confusing as shit. it’s not necessarily difficult, per se, but the instructions jump around a lot and i noticed many people were complaining that they inadvertently caught themselves sewing up the wrong view. so, fair warning, y’all. i went over the instructions before sewing, circled & highlighted what i needed, and wrote things like “STOP!” and “DON’T DO THIS!!!!1″ under the ones that were unnecessary.

that was my smart moment.
my not-so-smart moment was skipping the muslin. oops. i ended up having to open up the shoulders & remove about 5/8” from each piece. this is an adjustment i ALWAYS make with vogue patterns – why i didn’t make the adjustment to the flat pattern, i have no idea. sometimes i just refuse to learn from my mistakes.

the pattern calls for lining only the bodice and self-facing the flanges with the fashion fabric. since my fabric is a super wooly, super itchy tweed, i interlined them with cotton & faced with my lining. i also lined the skirt and covered the sleeve heads as well. the whole thing is pink on the inside! yay pink! i also stitched down the flanges to the bodice, as otherwise they would have have just been flapping around, and no. the pattern calls for no interfacing or stay-stitching (right??), and i was afraid those seams around the neckline would stretch, so i stabilized them with strips of silk organza – both the bodice neckline & the curves of the flanges. nothin’ sadder than a gapey neckline, amirite?

i used the aforementioned itchy wool tweed (yard sale score – $3 for 4 yards OH YEAH) and watermelon-pink bemberg rayon (left over from my circle skirt) to line. i actually stashbusted the shit out of this project; the only things i had to buy were the seam binding and a spool of brown thread. basically, my galaxy dress cost me less than $10. take that, mouret!

this is a *very* fitted style, as evidenced by the booty protrusion

i put a lapped zipper in the back since i was afraid an invisible zip would have trouble zipping over those layers. i like the effect, but i got a small bubble at the waistline. ugh.

had to lighten this photo, but check out the sleeve detail! yeehaw!
also, i know i kind of look preggers here but i promise i’m not 😉

here’s a little progress shot – the sleeves are giant & droopy without support, so i made a sleeve cap to give them some lift. i used horsehair crinoline and stuck it between the sleeve & the sleeve lining. the instructions wanted me to put it on top of the lining… why?

happy sleeve!
i ended up tacking my down by about 1/2″ at the sides – they were super huge & too footballesque, otherwise!

the lining took forever because i had to keep changing out the thread from brown to pink. i think it was worth it, though.

put a little seam binding at the hem

the neckline also had it’s fair share of problems (something i could have dealt with if i’d bothered to make a proper muslin!) – it is wide. too wide to wear a normal bra with! i don’t do strapless and i don’t do braless, so i sewed these little snaps inside the V to hook my bra to.

and here is the bra i sacrificed to the galaxy dress. it was the most low-cut out of any bra i own, and uhhh it’s teal blue.

so yep! there’s my galaxy dress, and another outfit down for fall/winter 2011! next up: the peony. i’m working on my muslin right now 🙂

Tags: completed, dress, fall 2011, galaxy dress, ripping off your shit, vogue