McCall's 5137

Maybe it was 6 years ago now, I was after a nice summer frock for a friend's wedding.  I loved this pattern when I saw it and I knew I wanted to do the version with contrasting colours.  Of course this became a chore finding the right principal fabric.  In the end I found  this beautiful 100% cotton fabric at Gardams.  I then just had to decide on the contrast pieces.  If memory serves me this pattern wasn't too complicated to make up. It was a time consuming given the number of individual pieces, including the front placard, waistband and sash, plus skirt border.   I was so very happy with the result. Needless to say I felt very stylish for the wedding I was attending. I also made my own accessories using some cheap strands of beads I purchased and mixing them to suit my colour combo. 

Post wedding I let this frock sit in my cupboard for maybe a year. For some reason I think my special frocks should be left at just that, special occasions only. But after awhile you realize a perfectly good dress is just sitting in statis.  Eventually out she comes and becomes part of the work wardrobe. Unless of course it's all a bit too much like evening wear, but I don’t have too many of those. This is probably the most commented on from my wardrobe.  I think because it resembles dresses from a nice, but expensive shop in Brisbane.  And once again another pattern I so wanted to make up again but haven't.  It’s much easier to remake the super easy dress patterns than it is to get motivated to make up one that was time consuming, even if the result was very satisfactory. 

I also changed the bow at the back option for the wrap around bow. It is more comfortable to sit in. I haven't lined the dress so have to wear a half slip with it. I'm a bit lazy with lining things and should make more of an effort especially for good dresses.  And at least  the skirt portion



The necklace is one of my own creations.  The design is one which I have repeated numerous times with slight variations depending on the beads.