The Purple Plum -- Simplicity 2497

It's done, it's done!  And I'm excited beyond words about how well it turned out.  I'm sure you've seen Simplicity 2497 on other blogs--I know it caught my eye. 

The pattern was pretty easy--except for that darn ruffle!  I went to extremes and did all the machine basting and handbasted it to the dress, then machine stitched it on.  It meant I had a ton of basting to pick out, but I didn't want to worry about those ruffles shifting while machine stitching it onto the dress.  There's nothing more annoying than having ruffle wrinkles!  When I make it again (and I think I will!  I can see it as the long version in red for Christmas!), I will pull out my ruffler foot and figure out the gathering ratio rather than going through all that machine basting.  I'll confess I've used that ruffler foot a lot lately--I gathered the bottom of the top as well as the skirt on this dress.  The ruffler was handy on McCall 6123, too.  It provides nice stability, no gathers shifting up and down the gathering thread which I like.

Now that you've waded through that paragraph, here's the dress!

I don't think the camera does it justice.  Plus I think it's picked up wrinkles where there aren't any--or maybe it's a poor pressing job.  Anyway, it really is like a Purple Plum--it has that plum color about it but because of the mauve warp, it also has a little bit of the mauve highlight that plums have.  Hence, I named it!  haha!  Some of the other bloggers named theirs, too.  Kinda fun, don't you think?  I had some fabric left, but you'll have to wait until a later post to see what became of it.

Alterations:

-Forward shoulder adjustment
-Slight round back adjustment (dart at shoulder seam)
-Dart at bust (the armhole was gaping and this seemed to fix it!)

Now, onto the real work!  Give me a simple project and I do believe I know how to make extra work out of it!

Other pattern changes:

-FULLY lined! 
-Topstitched neckline prior to putting on ruffle

That's right, I went nuts and fully lined the thing.  That slowed me down quite a bit, but I was a little lazy and used my wavy rotary cutter on the seams to prevent fraying.  The silk dupioni had all seams serged due to its fraying capabilities!  That was the very first step after cutting it out.  Anyway, it feels wonderful to have the Ambiance rayon lining against my skin so I think it was worthwhile. 

No construction photos since I was a woman on a mission!  Don't you love special occasions?