Today is my turn to show you what you could try if you’re considering entering Elizabeth’s Day and night dress challenge. There are so many of us that are showcasing examples to inspire you.
Yesterday I hope you saw Elizabeth of Elizabeth Made This and Brittany of Brittany J Jones

Ok so I may have made more than I should have. But it’s Summer here in Australia and I did have a week’s break hence my showcasing two patterns for this challenge.

You’ve already seen my original challenge day night dress, using Victory Patterns Nicola dress.

The fit of this dress is great.

I usually have to make a sway back adjustment but this wasn’t required for this dress.

Making the night version was a dream make.

See what I mean about the fit of this style?

The skirt is fully lined but it doesn’t stick to you so it’s easy to wear in hot humid weather.

If sewing zippers is your strong point, this dress uses buttons or snaps as the closure. And if you’re weight keeps changing, simply reposition the snaps/buttons.

This was such an easy dress to make, even with the huge bold floral fabric (John Kaldor) supplied to me by Minerva Crafts UK. If you live in Australia or New Zealand, I have a duplicate kit of the floral dress to giveaway on my Minerva Crafts blog post.

As I had time off, I decided to crack open this Burda Young pattern as another Day and night dress challenge idea. This pattern has been in my stash for a while and I bought it for a Summer party dress.

However I had to work out the bra component so I could wear this dress with confidence. 

I have made a one-shoulder dress before and it had a lot of inbuilt support. I used a bra kit I bought online last year from Susan of Measuretwicecutonce 

There’s nothing really showy with this dress but I wanted to feel comfortable in it, so I also delved into making a bra that would work for this dress. 

This pattern has no shaping at the back so this pattern is great to wear in the Summer.

We went to the beach during the week and I realised that a simpler bra style would work too. I wore this simple grey bra underneath this day dress. I drew the smallest size shaping from the dress and used 2-way stretch lycra and elastic.

The purple bra worked really well under this night dress.

Here’s a closer view of the front straps. This is more refined for the evening dress.

Here’s what the back of the bra looks like. The straps are slim and sit nicely.

The alterations for this dress were: 
– shortening the hem on this dress, 
– lowered the armholes by 3cm
– added darts at the back for shaping on the evening dress only.

This fabric has a snake texture but breaths well. Being black, it’s now a new ‘little black dress’ LBD.

I suppose this is what happens when you have a ‘staycation’ and your sewing room is available to whip up anything, anytime. 

Stay tuned this week with