A new kind of halter dress from vintage striped fabric

A new kind of halter dress from vintage striped fabric

• 5.21.2014

I like thinking out of the box (or pattern envelope) and trying something new!

I love summer dresses and I'm so happy warm weather is coming up, and I love making cute and colorful things for myself to wear. But I do sometimes get bored of my same styles (McCall's M5849, my fave strapless dress pattern, and variations on fit-n-flare Simplicity 1913 and Simplicity 2444)... so when I saw this page of my InStyle (April 2014), with these bold colors and shapes (Rosie Assolin designs), I was totally drawn to the cheerful coral party dress with tiny strap and midi skirt. I thought, how cute! I've never made one like that before!

I don't have the same silk (not sure what weave) of the original $2,995 dress, and while I do love the color, I had some woven stripe (appears bright solid) vintage fabric that I thought would be a good weight.

I used McCall's M6331, but obviously modified it considerably. I used the bodice of View B but I cut the center front piece on the fold, and didn't cut the flap extension--I shaped the sweetheart neckline shape freehand while cutting. I also skipped the back straps altogether (now wish I'd cut the back down a little lower, fits kind of high) and just added a narrow bias strap, attached at the innermost points of the front strap location. I lined the bodice with self fabric.

My fabric isn't as fancy as the silk, and this isn't quite as summer wedding-ey as the original--better for my lifestyle that way! Oh, the fabric is vintage, a blue/back woven stripe, which I bought for $0.99 for the whole 4-yard piece at Goodwill on vacation in Washington. Um, amazing deal.

Here it is!

The fit is great!

Except the slightly high back, like I mentioned. I guess it's better this high for a dress with continuous straps--for a halter, it felt like it might not stay up perfectly.

So summery!