A dress for a big event

My beloved nephew is getting married in a few weeks. This is a big deal.  I do own a rotation of black tie optional  appropriate dresses. The good and bad news is that there have been many weddings in our family in the past few years.  My dresses have been danced in at several family events. It was time to make something new.


I had spent a fair amount of time virtually shopping with my sister, the mother of the groom. She has chosen a beautiful dress for herself that will exactly suit her body and the occasion. I needed something for me.

I found this dress on the Norma Kamali site. It ticked a whole lot of boxes for me. It suits my body. It looks comfortable to dance in. It looks like regular clothes but it is made in a fancy fabric. I don't have to buy any special underpinnings to wear this dress.

The price tag did not tick any of my boxes. The dress is also somewhat showier than I want to wear at this event.

Several months ago I had purchased this embroidered mesh I had planned to make it into a dress for a different family wedding but time got in the way and the fabric is still sitting in my stash.

I do own a length of grey  metallic sequined fabric. When you combine the mesh with the sequined fabric you get 

something that is better than the sum of it's parts. It reminds me of looking at foliage at the edge of a pond. 

I took a closer look at the Norma Kamali dress and realized that it was made with a center seam both front and back. It was cut so the skirt widened both at the side seam and at the center seam.

This cut gives you a whole lot of movement in the skirt and a fitted bodice with very little fiddly work. A dress like this could be made with any number of complicating seams and lots of small fiddly pieces.  Instead, Norma Kamali creates a complicated look with four simple to sew seams.This is my kind of a dress.

I know that I am something of a fearless wild and wooly seamstress. I usually just dive in and fix all errors later. There is a time to have some restraint  ( I had invested some real money in the fabrics) so I decided to make myself a wearable muslin before I cut into the fancier fabrics. 

The Kamali dress is made with the sequined fabric on the front and a black and silver print on the back. 

I had a length of a grey ponte knit. I only had enough for the front so I made the back out of a black twill poly- the sort you might use in a pair of polyester dress pants. 

The dress came together quickly. I tried it on without hemming the neckline or the armseye or the bottom hem.

Clearly it needed a belt.

Even it it's raw state I can see that it works.

Below you see the black back.

I darted the shoulders for a nicer fit. This dress will serve as the pattern for the dress I wear to the wedding.

I wore the dress to a meeting I had to go to tonight. It feels great on.  It sews up so easily. Norma Kamali is a brilliant designer.