A dress good enough to swim in: The hunt for Red October finally ends?

This is a bit late for the Red October sewalong, huh. And it's the exact opposite of a Green December make. Fine.

I have a black lycra RTW dress with a cowl neck and flared skirt. It's so pretty and fun to swing dance in, except for one small problem: it has a really low back, which means that it can be awkward for leads to put their hands on my (sweaty) back^*. I've been hoping to make a backed version for some time, possibly in red. And so I finally have.



This is the V1351, made (and self-lined) from the vast quantities of leftover bathing suit fabric in the stash. Yes folks, this is the same material as my Bombshell suit. Because it's lycra, I didn't bother to cut it on the bias or install a zipper. I also didn't lengthen the bodice as usual, because I wasn't sure how the lycra would behave.

It's very quick to sew up. Which is good, because I was sewing it up two Saturdays ago in order to wear it to the Dovercourt Yule Ball, and for once I was on track to finish a dress with more than a few hours to spare. Sadly, it was not to be. I woke up with a dry cough, but by the time I got to the straps (and forgot again that you're not supposed to sew those seams all the way to the end -- unpicking that stretch stitch is less than fun), the dry cough had turned into plague. I was out for four days.^**



Fast forward to last night, which was the Jaymz Bee Holiday Swing Ball at the Palais Royale. I had the 'gift' of an unpaid PD Day from the province, so I used it productively lazed around for most of the day and then realized in a panic^*** that the dress was not technically finished yet, so I unpicked those shoulder seams and sewed them together. Trying the dress on showed me that due to grading the pattern to my measurements, I had to take the waist in about 2 inches on each side (throwing my carefully matched waist seams all to hell). I didn't stitch the outer shell to the lining, because I thought I might need to take in the waist even more, but first I wanted to see how it did after a night of dancing.

Yeah, it needs to come in more. Oh, Big 4 with your 4 inches of ease. You so funny.

I also didn't hem the dress. In the pictures, it seems to be flipping up a little. I'll see if that bothers me enough to deal with hemming. I doubt it will.



Question: I was thinking I should stabilize the waist with something, but since there's no zipper, the waist needs to stretch enough to go over either my shoulders or my hips. Is there such a thing? Should I bother?

We took the pictures in the basement of the Palais where, despite the harsh lighting, there are some cute pictures of a 1920s bathing beauties competition at Sunnyside Pavillion, which seems appropriate. (You can see one in the first shot.)





After the Palais, we went to a loft were a friend was having a solstice blues dance. I am pleased to report that this dress was super comfy to wear (and dance in) for 10-11 hours straight.

So, I really like this dress. I'll definitely be making this dress again in the gold and black knit I got from FabricMart. It didn't seem to sag much, so I will lengthen the bodice and cut it two sizes smaller in the waist to begin with. I was thinking of making it for NYE, but since it looks like we won't be going out, I'll shift the ever-moving target (I meant to make that version for this dance) to an event that will happen shortly after New Year's. Which means I'll probably start making it on New Year's Day. Why break the streak?

Now to do deal with that complementary colour challenge...



^*It also means I can't wear a bra with it; dainty-chested as I am, that's not so much a support issue as a "look what happens when it gets cold!" issue.<sup>****

**</sup>Pity the DC. He has his wisdom teeth out on his birthday, and instead of having me ministering to him, he's kept busy bringing me hot toddies and soup. Can he pick 'em or what.<sup>*****

***</sup>And so the sewing things up to the last minute streak remains unbroken.

^****You're welcome for that visual.

^*****I, on the other hand, totally lucked out. He's a keeper.