Once again, I had on the tv and glanced up at the screen and it was sewing kismet! There was a dress that I had to have!

Hilary on The Young & The Restless (she's pregnant in real life) was wearing this striking pink dress with bows on it and I had to know more. My favorite site for locating wardrobe from my favorite tv shows, never lets me down.

The dress is Black Halo Mystic Bow Dress.

To make my dress happen, I simply looked at the lines of the designer dress. The main thing: princess seams with no waist seam. So, I knew I'd be starting off with Vogue 1532. For the neckline, I went with a pattern I'd already used prior -- McCall's 7728.

First thing first, I had to marry the two patterns and picking fabric. My fabric is from my Spring/Summer Fine Fabrics Haul. It's an ivory rayon/viscose crepe.

For the center front, I cut it on the fold eliminating the center front seam.

I left the back like Vogue 1532, well... I lowered it by 2", instead of having a v-back like my inspo dress. I made bias cut straps for the dress as well.

To create the bow detail, I left the seam on one side open at the upper thigh. I spread open the seam so that it would hang apart and sewn in an inset or gusset... whichever you want to call it.

Here is the inside. Now, I haven't seen the inspo dress in person. This is just how I feel things should go. And as you can see from the results, it works.

I sewed the bows the same you would sew a fabric belt and hand stitched them on.

I installed an invisible zipper.

The dress is fully-lined and I used a nude lining. My lining fabric is Donna Karan Warm Beige Italian Stretch Silk Georgette. My sewing tip: Never skip the understitching. It keeps your lining from rolling forward. I've been noticing lately that a lot of people skip that step and *think* that they can just press and go... nope. There's my way -- there's your way -- and there's the RIGHT WAY.

I finished it off with a 2" deep machine-sewn blind hem. So, that's it. I hope I didn't leave off any details. I hope you all find posts like these inspiring to know that you never have to sew a pattern straight from the envelope -- unless you want to. You can take pieces, add new parts and adjust anyway that you like!

It goes without saying that I was going to make something to wear to the "Black Panther" movie. If you haven't been living underneath a rock and are not "tone deaf", you already know the cultural importance of this film. So, let's move on and talk about this jumpsuit!

I love jumpsuits and would wear one every single day, like Oprah loves bread! So, when McCall's 7728 was released, it went right into my shopping cart.

For my fabric, I wanted something that wasn't necessarily Ankara, but still had the same kind of vibe. I went with this Purple Geometric Polyester Suiting from Mood Fabrics.com. For the contrast, I used an Italian Black Stretch Metallic Mesh.

My initial modification was to change the pants. It wasn't something intentional or planned. When I was ordering my fabric, I was so excited about finding something I loved that I didn't notice that this suiting fabric was actually 45" wide! How often does that happen?? So, I only ordered 2.5 yards, which would have been perfect for the 60" layout. I was determined to have a Tim Gunn -- "Make It Work" moment, so I had to think on my feet. I decided to use another straight leg, high-waist pants pattern that I already had that I knew would fit. Because the originally drafted wide-leg pants took up a lot of fabric. And this turned out to be a great choice because if I had enough fabric and stuck with the original pattern plan, I would've spent an entire day basically matching all of the seams for the pants. If you haven't looked at the technical drawing for this pattern, the pants have back and front princess seams. And this is quite challenging when working with a print.

For the bodice, I cut the size 14. I added an inch of length to it. My fabric has a lot of stretch... it handles like a ponte knit. I ended up taking in about an inch and a half.

For the contrast yoke and sleeves, my stretch mesh was pretty difficult to work with. I found that using a walking foot was key. Since the fabric is translucent, you are going to want to keep the seams as small as possible. There is a lot of ease in this part. I had to reduce the sleeve width by 4". I wanted mine to be wide enough to get my hands through. But if you notice how much ease is at the underarm, it's because of how low the armholes are in the bodice.

I used a black power knit that I had in my stash for the bodice lining.

I made my hems as narrow as possible and used a metal zipper.

I love how the jumpsuit turned out. I love that it's a woven, but wears like a knit without that loosey-goosey fit.

I'm happy I went with a straight-legged style, because it looks good with heels and flats. I ended up changing shoes because it was raining. And once we got to the theater, the parking was horrid and even with pre-tickets, we still stood in line about a half an hour or more waiting to get into our theater. But it was a great movie, and totally worth it!