I am a little bit excited about this dress, she’s called—as you can see, The Devil-May-Care dress because she is unconventional and I consider myself to be a tad unconventional. As you know it’s Halloween, no costumes for me though. I’m enjoying the fact that I can use my favourite colour, B L A C K into this weeks post. I love black, I also love oddly shaped clothes, especially the ones that you spot in obscure boutiques, the ones that look distorted on the hanger, confusing to the eye, a puzzle, raw edges, skewed necklines, the garments that twist around the body and end up looking a million dollars on once you’ve worked out how to wear it, you know the ones with the hefty price tag? This is what I wanted to achieve with this dress.

Now to try and explain how I got to this point will be tricky because I literally spent at least two hours moulding this gorgeous fabric (Hub Crushed Taffeta approx $12 a metre) around my dressmakers form trying to find a pleasing shape, pinning, darting, draping, you should of seen me I looked like I knew what I was doing. It took less time to sew it, If I spied someone wearing this in the street I would rip it from their back and run for the hills. Not your cup of tea? Yeah I know, that’s okay, the world would be a boring place if we all dressed the same.

I used the raw edge of the fabric for the neckline sewing pleats into place to add form, the silhouette of the dress is the same as a tank top but I exaggerated the arm holes extending them out then cutting on a diagonal, I then sewed up each side at least eight inches in from the seam line leaving room for the pockets, skewing the other side by lifting the piece up at least four inches and sewing it down leaving the bottom elevated on a diagonal and the top with a gape that I’d sewn together adding a tie long enough to go around the body of the dress and some, am I confusing you? I’m confusing myself.

See the fabric that I inserted on the diagonal along the base line there? I purchased this small piece, I certainly did not sew those thin strategic lines into place, I am not that kind of c r a z y, yuk to that hey?

Have you noticed how many different ways this dress can be manipulated? I know right! she’s a winner for me, hey just add a belt! voilà! The texture of the fabric has this unique wrinkled pattern very similar to the tops of my prematurely ageing 80 year old looking hands, they blend in well with the dress. Score.

Faux fur was 30% off last week in Spotlight so I purchased a slither of that too and made this minnie shrug, stole thingy, I’m wearing it backwards in the photo above. With the leftovers, I’ve made a range of elasticated beards for my son he’s got one for everyday of the week now. Looking very dapper in his beard and bowtie combo’s. So, if I have to place this dress under a Halloweenish title I’d say it’s Mad Max crossed with Edward Scissorhands, I’m really not going for a gothic look, I’m going for unconventional with a smidgeon of unique, this challenge really was an excuse for me to sew something that had all the qualities of what I like to look at in a designer garment that I could never or rather would never spend the dollars on.. This is right up my alley being black and all. Happy happy happy.

Yep! I thought this deserved a little animation, lets see if I exceed my monthly bandwidth arrr. Have a peek at the Sew Weekly gals, they’re stopping traffic over there. So clever.

Happy Sewing, Happy days.