Rescued Rhapsody Dress

 

Sewing failures are fortunately few and far between but my latest project was just that!  It was my own fault really.  I had a pattern that I was determined to make up successfully despite a previous disaster so I followed all of the measurements and even allowed for extra seam allowances but still this one nearly ended in disaster; nearly!

Minerva sent me this lovely vibrant exclusive Painted Bouquet Viscose Challis fabric in exchange for a blog post.  This fabric has lovely drape and a beautiful vivid floral print that made it perfect for a floaty dress.  The only issue is, the pattern I chose didn't play nice.  After fitting the bodice or more accurately not fitting the bodice, I aborted my plans and grabbed the piece of fabric I had left and an unpicker and used a bit of pattern manipulation to cut out one of my favourites, Love Notions Rhapsody.  This time the dress version. 

Because of my fabric limitations and also because I had already cut a frill for the dress I originally intended to make, this dress ended up with a frill on the bottom.  Not that I am complaining mind you!  I think I would have planned it this way anyway if I had the choice.  I cut the bodice of my new dress from the skirt of the original and if you look carefully you can see the darts that I had to unpick.  Hopefully the stitch holes will disappear when the dress is washed.  In this busy print though, it isn't really noticeable.  The sleeves are the original but with the puff removed because once I had the dress assembled I really disliked the puff.  I chopped the sleeves off and reduced the height of the sleeve head to as close as I could get to the Rhapsody pattern.

To finish my dress, I added one of Minerva's new maker labels.  Doesn't it match the colours perfectly?

I am really pleased with how the rescue dress turned out and in hindsight I really should have made this one in the first place.  It will get worn a lot over the summer.