I have been so inspired by both of the duchesses style. I want to act like them and dress like them! So I’ve been working on a few special sewing projects to replicate garments I’ve seen Kate and Meghan wear.
For Easter I made Vogue 1499, similar in style to a dress Kate wore in Germany in 2017. My version had the same general style lines as Kate's dress, with Dior darts, a pleated skirt, and yellow lace overlay. The shade of yellow lace I used for my dress is much less saturated than Kate's dress, my skirt has more pleats and cap sleeves, and my lace fabric has a scalloped lace edge.
This Vogue pattern is made for crepe, linen, and silk dupioni fabrics. I used a white faille fabric with a nylon lace overlay from JoAnn. I cut each pattern piece in the faille as well as the lace and basted them together inside the 5/8" seam allowance, essentially creating one piece of fabric. This method worked well in most places, although I did cut four sleeves in the faille fabric and follow the pattern instructions for sleeve assembly, adding the lace overlay after the sleeves were assembled. I also needed to leave a few inches unstitched at each skirt side and back seam to allow me to hem the white fabric before stitching the rest of the side and back seams together.
Although I love how this turned out, getting the fit right was frustrating. According to the pattern instructions I should have been a size 12. I know that I am usually an 8-10 in traditional tissue patterns, but couldn't find any finished measurements for the bodice and therefore decided to be safe and cut the larger version. I tried to tissue fit the bodice pattern pieces to myself, but usually find this fitting technique works best with a second person assisting. Wow did I regret cutting the size 12 later! I ended up taking 1" off the bottom of the bodice to shorten the torso and removed 1 3/8" from each side at the center back. I ended up making so many fit adjustments that I was entirely overwhelmed at the thought of recreating my adjustments for the lining and ended up putting the whole project off until the last minute. In the end I did not line the dress, opting instead to use single fold bias tape to finish the neck and underarms. This was the first time I used bias tape in place of a facing or lining but I am thrilled with how it turned out and plan to use that technique again in the near future.
Overall I am thrilled with my version of Kate's yellow lace dress. I usually try to avoid wearing yellow, which doesn't look great on my skin tone; however this lighter yellow has me convinced to try yellow again. I wish the bodice of the dress was a bit more fitted and would likely make a size 8 if I were to make this pattern again.
Have Meghan and Kate's style inspired you?
Time estimate: 12-14 hours
Size: 12
Fabric used: white casa dahlia high shine faille fabric, 2 yards and sunshine casa collection lace fabric, 2 yards
Care instructions: machine wash cold, line dry
Cost to make:
pattern: $6
faille fabric: $14
lace fabric: $16
invisible zipper: $3
thread: $2
*used bias tape, and hook from my stash
TOTAL: $41
Resources
Professor Pincushion's tutorial for bias tape finish
KateMiddletonStyle.org for pictures of Kate
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