semi-professional dress~

 Remember the 'fabric' (aka glorified bedsheet) I used as a 'test' in the last traces of summer dress? Well, bed sheets are really big, and I had a lot of fabric leftover after making that dress. I decided to try my hand at another dress, but this time with a more professional look. As a med student, we have to dress up a LOT, and I am always running out of things to wear. I decided to make a conservative, simple dress to help out my wardrobe. Because I didn't have a lot of time, I decided to make the dress similar to the 'skirt' I refashioned last september and use the boxy-ish, t-shirt like look.

Didn't get to take pictures of the steps, but here's a schematic of what I did:

blue = sew lines

 Basically, I took a dress that I knew fit well, traced around it for my 'measurements' (leaving about a 1/2in margin), cut the excess off the sides and rounded out the neckline. I then pinned the two sides together and sewed the fabric along the blue lines indicated in the schematic (down the sides and at the top).

Because I was too lazy to add a zipper, I left the waist a bit big and used some of the extra leftover fabric to make a belt :P

The neckline actually ended up being a bit big, so I folded over one corner of the neckline to make it asymmetrical and sewed down the fold.

sewing down a folded corner of the neckline

what it looks like from the front

Finished product:

dress + belt made from extra fabric!
photocredit: Jenny M.

close up of the neckline (can you tell how big it was before??)

Since I've made this dress, I've been able to wear it multiple times--under my white coat, to church, or just as another everyday outfit. It's casual enough to wear during the week, but simple yet streamlined enough to wear in front of patients. Definitely happy with how this came out, and it took just a couple hours to make~! If you have a sewing machine and some extra stiff-ish fabric, would definitely encourage you guys to try this out! :)