Sunday, January 5, 2014

Gertie's Wiggle Dress with a Cherry on top !

Time to reveal one of my new completed projects everyone !

Since July, I have been losing a little bit of weight, and this made me want to wear more fitted clothing. I have also been feeling more comfortable wearing these fitted dresses and skirts. For my wedding last year, I have used Spanx. And they work miracles.

All of this made me gravitate towards Gertie's Wiggle dress. I have been admiring it for some time. First in the book. If you don't know, it is the book cover look.



Further in the book, it is presented with a few variations. Long sleeves, short sleeves, no sleeves, drindl skirt etc. This dress is a sheath style with kimono sleeves. It has a boat neck in front and a V at the back. It als has an underarm gusset. This dress also makes you look like a beautiful hourglass. I love the design of the hip line. It marks your waist beautifully !



There have been a few versions in blogland. Erika, of course, went for it. I think she liked the book even more than I did ! The photo is even in her banner. I think it is a style that would make many women look gorgeous. You just need to feel ready to jump and go for it.



Our favourite Mad Men lady showed us the way for the past few years. To be honest, without Joan, there are a lot of things that would not have been in my radar at all. The dress below if one of these exemples. I actually went for that color. I also shortened the sleeves. This photo was a great inspiration for this project.



Working on this dress went much smoother than expected. I started from the size 16 for the bust and upgraded to what should have been a size 18 from the waist down. And the muslin was perfect. The only detail that needed changing was the length : I had to shorten the skirt of approx. 10 cm. Shortening the sleeves was tricky because I did not know where to cut. I tried a few different cuts. I also had to slash through the gusset to be able to go for that. I also added a lining due to the itchy nature of wool. Here you go !

This has to be worn with high heels!

I really love the marked waistline

I think that the profile is less flattering compared to the front but still looks good

This is the lining with a nice light rayon I had leftover from the bridesmaids dresses

These are labels my Mister got me for Christmas from the Colettes pop up store

I used bias leftover from another project for the armholes
I also used it for the hem

All in all, I love the dress. It makes me feel like wearing high heels and put make up on. It also can make me feel fabulous when I feel less nice. I really really like it and I will defenetly use this pattern again.


8 comments:

  1. Fantastic! And i love the color!

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  2. This is a great look on you! I love the color and the design. Nice job. g

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  3. Lovely dress. Those labels are a scream. Thanks for the pics of all the details.

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  4. This is STUNNING on you! Gorgeous colour, too.
    And I, too, love this book - I want to make almost all the dresses in it (unlike the Colette book, unfortunately). I even have a brocade that is similar to her one on the cover

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  5. Love the dress! You can't beat Joanie for inspiration … there is a woman who rocks her curves.

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  6. I love it! The label is a nice touch too. :)

    I'm also a 16/18 pear - are we the same size? I've been following you for a long time and commenting under "Isidore", but I finally started blogging at denversews.com. We should compare patterns!

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  7. I have this book, but have not touched anything in it because I would also need to grade it. Have you posted something about how you do this? Especially for this dress, which does look very nice on you!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Joan, Thanks for your comment! For this dress, I used my usual upgrading technique. I explained it there: http://quirkyprettycute.blogspot.nl/2010/09/how-i-upgrade-pattern-easy-way.html
      I think that I will write another blog post about how I upgrade in general, as a part of a project. Let me know if you have any questions!

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