Then I didn't actually check my cupboard when I got home, but just dove into the fabric draws. In hindsight, I could have pretty easily worn the Peacock Dress, which is very green. Calling me, in the fabric draw, however, was the perfect fabric. This I had picked up in Japan from our April Travels and is honestly so perfect for Wicked that the timing was just meant to be.
I dug out my new go-to dress pattern (self drafted from a Princess Highway dress I love and most recently used to make my Onigiri Dress), and decided I would just swap the skirt out for a quarter circle (similar to my Christmas Skirt) instead of a gathered one. I had exactly two meters of this green cotton with lovely golden flowers on it, and I knew I couldn't get any more since it came from Japan and I had two weeks till the show. I cut very carefully. Measure twice cut once - more like measure five times then cut once.
The dress itself came together easily. Not having any matching fabric for lining I lined it with some leftover cotton from the fancy pyjamas I made in 2022. Unorthodox, perhaps, but when you are sewing your own clothes you kinda get to make the rules. The biggest adjustment I made (aside from the skirt style) was to lower the back to get away with a shorter zip.
It was all going very smoothly, until I pinned the skirt in place and found I'd allowed too much and it was too big. Having already sewn the sides with pockets, I was reticent to unpick all that hard work, so I turned to the sewing community of Brisbane to ask their advice. My thoughts were to either use darts/pleats to take in the extra at the waist, or just cut out two sections of the skirt front so it would look like panels. Most people were either in favour of the dart/pleat suggestion or of gathering the skirt to fit the bodice.
I hadn't thought of gathering because I didn't want it to look bulky and out of place on the circle skirt, but everyone assured me it would be barely noticeable. I figured that was the easiest thing to try and unpick if it didn't work, so that is what I ended up doing. And I loved it. Thank you sewing community of Brisbane for saving the day!
When I tried it on though, the bodice was too gape-y at the top! I'm thinking it's because I lowered the back neckline and somehow failed to compensate, but the front was big too. Anyway, I solved the front with a gather and then umm-ed and ahh-ed about fixing the back. The simplest but certainly messiest (and ugliest) solution would be some darts. The other option was to unpick the zip, move the back seam and then sew it back in.
I left it sit on the dress form while I went to Street Camp, secretly hoping that some small animal friends or magic would do the work for me while I was away. When I returned however - no such luck. Time to try plan B.
As always with unpicking, it didn't take as long as I feared and resewing the zip in took hardly any time at all. The dress was finished with some self-made bias tape for the hem and hand stitching the bodice down on the inside. It's beautiful, the gathering at the waist is barely noticeable, and the pockets are excellent.
I had just enough fabric left to cut and make Steve a matching bow-tie, because bow-ties are cool.
It was pretty lucky that I actually got to wear the dress though, because I was admitted into emergency for some surgery on the Wednesday night. Though all the pain while the surgeon was telling me what was going to happen, I was mostly crying because I thought it would mean I wouldn't get to Wicked the next day. Luckily, they did the straightforward (and pain relieving) operation at 7pm, and I was discharged at 10:30 on Thursday morning. I went home, took painkillers and got dressed to get to the matinee performance. Needed a big lie down afterwards, but it was worth it.
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