Black Tie Optional Dress with Pockets!

One of the unofficial sewing goals this year is to wear a me-made-dress to each 2015 wedding we attend. We were invited to a "black tie" optional wedding, and I didn't have anything in my closet that would work.

I had some purple fabric in my stash from my New York Garment District shopping spree that I was saving for a formal occasion. I narrowed my pattern search to Simplicity 1801 (which I had made once before) or Simplicity 1420. Ultimately, I decided on Simplicity 1420 because I thought it would suit the fabric much better. I waited to buy the Simplicity pattern on sale at Joanns, which meant I had about a week to fit and sew the dress together in time for the wedding!

I've always had trouble fitting my dresses, but I feel like I'm starting to get a hang of fitting. I made a muslin and made adjustments to make all the right body parts were covered.

Fitting changes:

• Narrow shoulder adjustment - took out a wedge on the v neck
• Forward shoulder adjustment

Other design changes:

• Copied the shape of the skirt sides, maximized the skirt width as much as possible with my fabric
• Created 4 pleats in the front and back (the fabric was heavy so pleats looked much better than gathers or sewn down pleats like the original pattern)
• Added 2 inseam pockets (big enough to slip in my cell phone!)

Front side Pictures (Look at how deep those pockets are!)

Picture of back

Close up of Bodice