My Oonapalooza dress is done, worn, and photographed! Don’t know why that seems like such an accomplishment… but it IS a whole lot of ITY to wrangle!
You might remember my plans:
You guys wisely told me to do v2, and I did. It’s a modified Sewaholic Saltspring, with the front and back neckline raised. I traced a slightly smaller size, since I was using a knit, and took a few inches off the bodice length… I have to admit I didn’t use the instructions at all. Instead it was all a big geometry puzzle in my head!
The straps are a double layer of fold-over elastic (pure laziness on my part) fed through a channel in the front and back bodice. I used swim elastic for the waist (again, laziness and it was all I had in the right width) which does work well because it’s quite stretchy but also strong enough to hold up the full maxi skirt!
Putting in a slit was an important part of Oona-fying this dress. The Saltspring skirt is HUGE , so I just cut from waist to hem, sewed to mid-thing, and folded back the rest to finish. It would have more impact if the skirt wasn’t as full, I think - it really doesn’t show much even when I walk! I *could* have done the slit higher… but truth be told, I always wear legging shorts under skirts to avoid friction, so this is a wearable compromise.
Along the way, I learned that posing against a wall is harder than Oona makes it look!
Yeah. You might be getting the vibe by now that I’m not in love with this dress. Nothing wrong with it, and it is perfectly fine… but meh. I’m not sure if it’s disappointing because I put a lot of work into altering the pattern, or if it’s because it turns out I don’t like this high faux-halter neckline as much as I thought I would! I think the dress suffers from being blousey everywhere. I think it would have been more flattering if the top was more body con with a defined waist, or the skirt was smooth at the waist and then flared out dramatically. As is… fine but very demure!
As a result of my haphazard drafting, the back is out lower than the front… and I actually rather prefer the back bodice worn in the front! But then the slit is in the back, and that’s just odd…
The great news is that the dress cost less than $20 in materials, and I got to test out my drafting skills and try out a new silhouette in the process. Learning-wise, this dress is a win! I’m sure I’ll wear it again sometime… family BBQ maybe, or something like that? For now, I’m happy to move on and think about the next dress - because I still need something to wear to weddings this summer!
Tell me I’m not alone on being a little disappointed on some projects! What have you worked hard on, only to feel a bit “meh” in the end?
ps. Speaking of slightly meh, I wore my navy polka dot Comino cap dress for the first time the other day, and realised that it’s too monochromatic for my tastes! I wore it with matching mint shoes and necklace, and felt rather generically pretty until I had layered on a pink cardigan and multi-coloured floral scarf! The dress itself was lovely to wear, but I really think I need to stick to multi-coloured fabrics! (Except my next dress coming up, which is black and white…)
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