Chloe Knockoff at the Dubuffet Sculpture

Finally here to post something new I designed!

Ok, if it looks familiar at all, it's because it's a sort of a knockoff of this dress by Chloe from 2013.

I loved the lines on the dress and with my love of colorblocking, I knew I had to find a way to make it my own. Initially, I was going to to the same overhang-thing on the Chloe dress but something in the patternmaking of it cinched the waist way too much. So I salvaged it by cutting the overhang part off and just attaching the bodice to skirt like a regular dress.

 This is actually the first thing I've designed and made in about 7 months (yikes) - I've been using commercial patterns for the last few things. So, being a teeny bit rusty I made quite a few errors somehow. I know how to fix them all, but ugh!

When I first tried it on, it was SUPER tight. I couldn't imagine why since I had made it fit my dressform and then it dawned on me - I forgot to include wearing ease on the pattern. Grr. So I ended up letting it out 1/4" on almost every seam, making the waist increase by 1 1/2".

I also fought with the invisible zip for some reason even though I have done many. This dress was full of ridiculousness, but all-in-all, I think it turned out really well, even if the blue fabric crinkles like none other!

I thought this Dubuffet sculpture paired nicely with the lines on this dress - it's downtown Chicago at the Thompson Center. If I remember correctly, many Chicagoans actually hate this sculpture but I don't know why. I like the contrast of the dark lines on white and the geometric look of it.

If I need to make another (the blue fabric I just remembered doesn't wash well AT ALL) I still have plenty of the pink and green left. So basically, I ended up with a wearable muslin here.

 Originally, I also had the tucks symmetrical but upon sewing, I decided that I actually liked them both on the side, much like  the original Chloe dress. They obviously had more fabric in their tucks but I didn't necessarily want it to be too drastic. I also tried to avoid darts the first time around, going with more of a boxy look but then decided that I actually wanted it to be more fitted so I added darts to the bust during pattern making.

I think it worked out well!

I'm actually enjoying doing some knock-off patterns right now. I have a few more that I might do, but not sure. I have a huge queue of garments lined up, it's really just about figuring out which ones and making them!