Wardrobe Planning with Ann: Garden Dress

I love having one new summer dress every year! It’s a stylish choice that will keep you cool for under-the-sun adventures. Ann nicknamed her new dress the Garden Dress because she envisions sitting in her backyard garden, enjoying a cold beverage!

Mood Board

The inspiration dress is from Net-a-Porter and had Ann’s name written all over it! The designer is Bondi Born, and it features one of the hottest trends this season, the cutout. The cross-over belt combined with a flared skirt (similar to last year’s LWD) gives Ann a smaller waistline. Wardrobe Planning Tip: Pick a trend each season that fits your body type and lifestyle to keep your look current.

Fabric

Vintage Pink Linen was the perfect weight for this dress. This mid-tone pink is great for Ann’s complexion and also checks the “bright color” trend box. Lyocell or denim would be other great choices. The dress is lined with Ballerina Pink Cotton Shirting. The designer used matching buttons for the dress, but I thought something more interesting was needed. I gave Ann two button options. She ran a poll on her IG Friday Live (1pm CST every Friday @youtiquebridal_lifestyle), and the audience voted for the button with the brushed gold rim! See all fabrics and notions here.

Pattern Draft

Ann combined three patterns to draft this dress. She used the red lace top without the sleeve for the bodice front. The skirt is from her Summer’s LBD maxi dress/swimsuit coverup.

The bodice back cross-over belt is adapted from
1) Vogue 8772.
2) Ann decided on the width she wanted for the cross-over belt and used a pencil to draw the curve.
3) She traced this onto muslin
4) and extended it across the back.

Putting the back pieces together

Muslin Fitting

The muslin fitting showed gaping at the lower back and front armhole. To fix the gaping at the lower back, Ann adjusted the width and length of the strap. The armhole was corrected with an armhole and side dart.

Final pattern pieces with adjustments

Of course, Ann added pockets!

Ballerina Pink Cotton Shirting was used for lining. This soft fabric glides over the body but is still breathable and cool.

The back skirt has a 9″ zipper.

The button was too large for the largest buttonhole maker on Ann’s machine.

She made faux buttonholes and attached the buttons by hand. On the inside, Ann used skirt hook and eyes on the outer edge and an actual buttonhole on the right with a flatter button, “Hot Lips.”