outfit: old hollywood glamour

Last night was my works End of Financial Year party, which was an "Old Hollywood Glamour" theme. 

Initially I was going to go with a red sparkly number but it didn't fit too well and I couldn't find the fabric I needed to make the alterations I wanted to do.

I almost decided not to go, but then a week before I decided to sew up something from scratch instead!

Nothing like an epic last minute sewing project!!

I already had some scalloped blue lace, so I decided to use that up and started looking on etsy at dresses and dress patterns for inspiration.

Deciding what colour to go with the lace was hard, I couldn't decide on a cream or dark blue, but ended up going with the blue as I had decided that I wanted something I could potentially wear again to less formal events - the blue just looked a bit less flashy.

After I had purchased the fabric I came across this pattern on the Vintage Pattern Wiki which was pretty much exactly what I had in mind, so I used it as my guide and came up with this dress. Once again I used my trusty New Look 6132 pattern for the bodice, however I altered it a bit to make the front seams into an "S-curve" shape - which is used to make the bodice lay flat and tight about the ribs, and then curve up into the bust line, giving it more of a 50's silhouette.

For the skirts I used 3 metres of each fabric, and gathered them using this method which was a million times easier and I don't think I'll be doing it the ordinary way anymore!

I also wore my petticoat underneath to give it extra pouff.. I definitely had the biggest skirt of the night!

The over-skirt does up with hook-and-eyes rather than a bow as I was going to wear a belt over it.

I ended up wearing different shoes on the night - just plain black pumps because I felt that these ones along with the length of the dress were a bit stump-ifying on me.

There was a best dressed competition, which I was nominated for and came in 3rd to two guys both wearing something more "costumey", but I got a lot of compliments all night about how authentic I looked and how nice the dress was.. It's always extra nice to get a compliment about something you've made yourself!