Inspinration: Paradise Island Shift dress

For years, I have been planning to sew myself a dress in woven fabric, but I never dared to. I bought several patterns and even bought the perfect fabric, but the garment never was born. Then, I saw a testers call for the Paradise shift dress* from Bella Sunshine* and I decided that this was my sign. Having a designer at my side, one that drew a pattern for 7 different cup sizes, I had to be able to succeed right? I totally did, I love my dress. Looking back at all my sews it might be the one that makes me most proud, it is for sure in the top 5.

So, about those different cup sizes. How cool is that! One of the main things that held me back was the fear of making full bust adjustments. A few years ago, I would have had to make bigger adjustments. Over the last years, my belly and hips are catching up with my chest. The adjustments still scarred the crap out of me though. With this pattern I could just pick a ready made pattern based on my upper and lower bust sizes, easy peasy.

The shape of the dress is created by darts. There are eights darts in the main fabric, but because the dress is fully lined, you need to sew 16 darts. I was a dart novice, but after making a full muslin and a final dress, I feel very comfortable in sewing them. The hardest part was ironing them correctly, the right sewing technique makes all the difference.

For my first dress I chose a very light colored fabric which resulted in a very hard to photograph dress. I should have known, I already tried to make pictures of this fabric twice here and here, there is a saying about a donkey in there right.. I succeeded in getting one good picture though. De fabric is rather thick and therefore does not drape nicely.

For my final fabric I used Echino fabric, which I bought at Modes4U, over two years ago (I said this dress took a while right). I love the colors on this dress and a linn percentage gives it a nice drape. I did not pay attention to the fabric placement and the dots ended up around my breasts, which is not ideal. But it is not that bad, they are everywhere anyway. I have a narrow piece left, and I should have turned it into a dress for my youngest. This Paradise shift dress is actually a mommy and me pattern set. At the time of the call I did not dare to commit to another dress, I have been overstretching myself on testing a bit lately.

The ladies pattern comes with size range from 0-20 with cups A-G and is on sale for only $9 through weekend, the mommy and me bundle is $12! Check out the shop here.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).