You know how you enjoy admiring what’s available in store but know that you can make it – you just need to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle to make it? That’s what I felt with this Anthropologie pieced column dress. It’s the version on the right. My take on this RTW dress is on the left. I’ve entered this into PR’s RTW contest.

What I needed was to see how someone with more technical nouse handled a similar situation and I saw Dilliander’s pieced top and then the penny dropped. You could hear the penny clang a mile away.

Yesterday, as it happened, Dilliander and I were both at Rhodes ASG day and I had practised figuring out her pieced top to the point where I have it cut out, ready to sew. I even have the FOE to bind the neckline.
 

For the sewing techos, this picture above show how I identified the 5 sections on the dress and then Dillander realised the stripes are at the same angle as the base of each section.

Then I traced off the pattern pieces from the template onto tissue ie, wrapping paper from a Christmas present. I did iron the paper before I drew on it.

Each section was sewn with seams great and then topstitched using grey thread. I’ve used a two thread Coverpro finish for the neck edge, sleeve hems and dress hem – and that’s it.

So last night I wore this dress to dinner with some close and very honest friends and I got some great comments so I’m a happy sewer today. So honest, one of my friends alerted me to a bit of lipstick on my teeth – an easy fix in the powder room.