workhorse: something that's useful and durable, a dependable performer under heavy or prolonged use.
There's been a piece of navy-blue wool blend rattling around in the stash for a while which was bought on impulse at one of the Fabric Warehouse's sales. Decent quality wool blends are good staple fabrics to have if you work corporate, especially in navy, grey and black. I've also had Vogue 1267 for a while. It took the need to replace a workhorse on it's last legs for me to connect the dots and put the two together.
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| Belt from Portmans |
I changed a few things from the pattern. To make it more work-appropiate, I straightened the high-low hem (felt it would date quickly), adding a kick pleat in the back so there's still plenty of room to walk comfortably. I also added small cap sleeves and changed to a V-neckline - I'm not fond of clothing up around my neck. After the initial fitting I also moved the point of the dart closest to the neckline 1cm further away and extended all of the shoulder darts 1–2cm towards the bust point as they all seemed to stop a bit short.
Very happy with the finished dress which turned out exactly how I imagined, and as you can see by the wrinkles, it's already in use.
Although I manipulated the original pattern by chalking straight onto the fabric to make adjustments to this version, I did keep a record of everything I did (luckily!) because I have a hunch I'll probably re-use it again in the not too distant future.
Off to have a look in the stash…
Also had a bit of a scissor sharpening fiasco recently, which ended happily when Andrew at Knife Edge Sharpening Service put it all right. Highly recommended!