Dolce and Gabbana Inspired: Red Lace Tunic Dress

You know the phrase, "That money is burning a hole in your pocket!". . .Well, I had two tiny pieces of that red lace left. We're talking a piece that was 35" by 44" and a piece that was 16" by 28". Anyways, I had other plans for my day, but I couldn't focus on any of them because this fabric was calling my name.

Okay, Class, remember this picture?

I haven't been able to get this dress out of my head. It's just so comfy looking that I just had to try to make it. I had hoped I'd have enough red lace to do a third look, but. . .alas, it was not meant to be. That romper will have to do.

Here is another view:

And another (the one on the right):

So, I'm not sure what the back looks like again, but I did notice that the front has this sort of dropped top hem with the material underneath. Here is a closeup:

I think this original dress is actually a red lace dress with a red slip underneath, but since I had some more red bed sheet material, I thought I might just attach them together to make one dress.

Here is what I came up with:

I know it looks sort of feed sack-y, and of course it needs the wrinkles steamed out, but it looks much cuter on a person. Too bad I'm too much of a slacker today to model it.

You've probably noticed three differences. This dress has no symmetry; the bottom hem doesn't flair out like the original (nor do the sleeves); and it's not as fitted as the original. Okay, the symmetry and flairing issues are due to the fact that I was REALLY limited on fabric. Had I had about five more inches, the dress would look a lot more true to the original. Also, the fitting issue is due to the fact that I wanted this dress to be a pull-over and not a zippered one. I plan to wear a black belt with it to cinch the waist.

This dress took about two hours from start to finish. That includes the pre-planning! Once I had my pattern, everything pretty much fell into place. I cut all four of the the dress pieces the same. Then I cut the front lace neckline slightly lower, and the front solid neckline much lower. I only had to cut two sleeves. I didn't have to hem the lace part because I'd cut around the flowers to create edging. So pretty much, all I had to sew was the front red lace neckline, the front solid red neckline, the front and back necklines together, the shoulders together, the sleeves onto that, and then close up the sides of both the sleeves and the sides of the dress. I even cheated on the hem of the solid red part as shown below. I just used a jersey stitch instead of folding over and hemming. This was to conserve the length of the dress.

I did the same jersey stitch (rather than folding and hemming) to the solid red neckline so it wouldn't fall lower than the bra-line.

The End!

Dolce and Gabbana Inspired - Red Lace 3/4 Sleeves Tailored Dress

Dolce and Gabbana is going with a Catholic/Byzantine theme this fall and winter. The show started off with dresses printed in mosaics with motifs of saints and priests. All the women wore little gold crowns and crucifix jewelry. The show ended with the flood of Cardinal red lace pictured below. Several of the dresses caught my attention. 

(When I found 4 1/2 yards of red lace and a red cotton bed sheet at the thrift store, I knew what I had to be done!)

Here is a Dolce and Gabbana advertisement in Vogue for September 2013. Notice how the dresses have red material behind the red lace. That's the look I was going for. 

This is the cut and style of dress that caught my attention. This one is kinda see-through, though.

Here is a close-up of the same dress. I used this picture to figure out the sleeves.

Notice the bodice. The flowers are symmetrical and placed above the breasts (instead of on them, which would be distasteful). I knew that symmetry and placement were important, so I tried to keep them as I was cutting and darting. If you can't see what I'm talking about, scroll to the next picture.

I circled the flowers I was talking about.

Here is my dress. I didn't iron it because I don't think you are supposed to iron lace. I will steam it before I wear it, though.

See the symmetrical flowers??? That wasn't easy. That's why I'm making you look at them!

I also got the sleeves as symmetrical as possible. See the flower right on the ball of the shoulder?

It's like that on the other one too.

I don't know what the back of the original dress looks like, but I know on Project Runway they say that if the front of your dress is high, then make the back a little lower and vice versa. If they are both high it looks "Madame" and if they are both low, it looks trashy.

More symmetry in the back--notice the flower symmetry. Oh, I forgot I was going to put false buttons on the back. I was too excited to post it! I will have to post and update later. I also kinda haven't decided if I want to take another couple inches off the bottom, because I'm kinda short. I'll definitely post an update at some point.

This is a picture using the flash. I put a cross necklace with it as a nod to the runway show.

No flash.

The End!