Cut Out Shift Dress Progress Report

I have finally made some headway with the cut out shift dress! So here it is.


First I started to make the shift dress. After a few trial and error attempts I ended up making a basic pattern for a dartless shift dress. My first thoughts were to make it quite loose fitting but trying this out I found that this would distort the pictures of the Paris printed fabric so I decided on a tighter fit. In the end this dress will be very slimming as the triangles will bring in the waist and give you a great curvy shape. That's the plan anyway!

Here a few pictures of the basic shift. The fabric I used is black twill with a 20% stretch. This will add some comfort to the dress - I like to use fabric with a bit of stretch for tighter fitting designs.

Front

Back

As you have probably noticed my dress form is slightly wonky so sorry about that! I don't really know how that happened! Still works. I have sewn up all the seams except from the left hand side which is where I intend to put an invisible zipper. 

Now for the hard bit - adding the cut out triangles in the right place. For this part I just started experimenting with placement and size to see what I like the look of. I haven't quite finished this part yet and just took a few snap shots of my first attempt. Still got some work to do...

The dress will eventually have two cut out sections just as soon as I decide on where they will go. I can be quite indecisive so this may take some time!!

Let me know what you all think of the first attempt and where you would put the second cut out piece. Are you as indecisive as me? Any help or comments are very welcome!

New Design: Cut Out Shift Dress

It's definitely about time I started to make a new design. My Etsy shop is in dire need of some new items so here goes. This is my idea....

I made this t-shirt a while ago using a basic t-shirt style and cutting out diamond shapes for the tartan sections. I didn't make a pattern for this it was just something I threw together without much thought! The photos aren't the best but I hope you get the general idea. Its basically two diamond shapes cut out of both sides - one higher than the other. I also cut out triangles from the sleeves to tie in the tartan.

I like the idea of using this cut out style for a shift dress. Especially after finding this fabulous printed April in Paris cotton fabric. I'm going to use a black stretch twill fabric for the basic shift dress and the printed fabric for the cut out sections. It will be a basic shift dress with no sleeves and no darts. Here are photos of my chosen fabrics.

What do you think of this idea? Would it be something you would wear? Or want to make? In my next post I'll show you how I go about making the design and pattern. All comments welcome.