Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Modes Royale Inspired Four Piece Cocktail Ensemble





I have been planning on making this outfit since 2008 when I discovered the Modes Royale patterns.  Of course other projects kept jumping in front of this one, and another designer made this before me, but I still was obsessed with making this design myself.

I really like the idea of the lace sheath under an overdress or redingote.  I started thinking about other possibilities and I ended up adding a sash, and a straight skirt to create four different outfit options.


I wanted to make this outfit for last year's "Every Day a Holiday" convention, but I didn't like my first attempts.

I originally designed the redingote with a full gathered skirt.  I like the way it looks with the straight skirt under it, but I hated the way it looked over the lace sheath.  I will be selling this outfit as a 2-piece cocktail dress.

This is my original lace sheath, I loved how it turned out with this lace, but I felt like the pink underlining didn't show through enough.  I ended up selling the sheath and sash as an outfit without the redingote and skirt.

I decided to start over on the redingote.  After really inspecting the original picture I realized that the skirt is not gathered at the hips.  It is more of a flared skirt.  Why had I missed that detail the first time around?

Here is my 7th attempt.  It took a lot of tries to get the skirt to look the way I wanted it to.





I changed the lace on the sheath, and I like the way the pink underlining shows more.



I think the sheath looks beautiful with the matching sash.

I added the straight black skirt to be worn under the redingote.  This is my favorite look!  I think it is so elegant.






 As an afterthought, I realized that the skirt could be worn over the sheath for another look.




Here are all four pieces combined into two great outfits.

To purchase this pattern click here.

No comments: