This is about a dress that is coming about purely through luck.
Back in November Marie and Kat organised a blogger meetup in Birmingham. It was a lot of fun and amongst other things I came back with this fabric, a doubleknit with a metallic fibre on one side. I didn’t spot it myself; Kat pointed it out to me.
I was originally planning to make Burda 118A-10-2012, a long-sleeved cowl necked dress with waist gathers. But recently I was flipping through my pile of pages ripped out of fashion mags inspiration folder and came across this picture. It’s a Christopher Kane. The picture had no date but a bit of trawling through style.com showed it’s from fall 2007. Clearly the sparkly fabric was meant to be a knock-off of this dress.
The Christopher Kane dress has raglan sleeves. Also strange bolt-like bits on the shoulders that I am not going to copy.
I went through my whole pattern collection and found I didn’t have a single close-fitting raglan-sleeved knit dress or t-shirt pattern. Even my collection of Burdas had nothing. I vaguely thought about drafting something; I even got Metric Pattern Cutting off the shelf and looked up the appropriate chapter. And then I put it back because drafting involves rearranging furniture to make enough space to draw, and also requires daylight which is short supply in the UK in December.
Then a three-for-one Vogue pattern sale happened and I realised the knit dress from Vogue 8866 could save me from the dreaded drafting. The collar and sleeves should be fairly easy to extend.
Of course no sewing has actually happened yet, what with Christmas and all. But the fabric’s in the washing machine and the pattern has been ironed ready for when things return to normal.
Have a great Christmas!
Catherine Daze's Blog 
Oh thank you Lady Luck and sparkles. This will be interesting indeed. What do you think about the glove/finger treatment in the original? Could be useful for the Jan-Mar chilliness on your side of the world?
Merry Merry to you too.
I really like it. I get cold hands so it should be practical. Bit worried it’ll make my gorilla arms look even longer though!
I don’t think you have long arms so don’t worry about it. I need to add 1-2″ to most sleeves so I know how you feel BTW.
That’s going to look fabulous! Love the sparkly fabric.
This will be fabulous!
I literally just bought a fabric exactly like this that I was like “oh new years eve dress!” without a plan. I’m thinking of doing a skater dress with an empire waist. I’m also thinking of eating a lot of christmas treats so that may help. Can’t wait to see what you do!
Cat
http://www.catgotdressed.blogspot.com
This should be a wonderful interpretation of the original dress. Love the fabric!
This will look lovely! I bought that pattern for the weird item called “jacket”. I just couldn’t resist such an exaggerated peplum!!! I love your sparkly fabric! It will be a gorgeous dress.
I can’t wait to see it. I love everything you make.
Oh please, oh please make this! It will be so fabulous!!
You are amazing at matching up the most fabulous fabrics with the perfect patterns! Cannot wait to see it….
I’m excited to see how this turns out.
Double knit + sparkle = two of my favorite things!!
oh man, am I excited. You are so good at choosing things that look good on you and this is no exception. Can’t wait to see it.
Oh, yes. That fabric and the dress from Vogue 8866 are a puurfect match. this is going to be epic.
What a cool idea! Love the pattern, and who wouldn’t love a sparkly double knit!! 🙂