Chloe Inspired Dress

Hello Spring! Two days before my trip to Hawaii I saw this beautiful Chloe dress featured on their Spring/Summer 2015 collection. With 2 days left I thought theres no way I would finish this dress.. but I wanted it soon bad and I couldn’t afford it, so I thought why not just recreate it. Let’s get started!

Materials you need:

2 meters of white cotton or linen fabric

2 meters of lace and white silk cord

Here are the steps:

1. For the bodice cut out 4 long triangle shapes, mine was 14″ tall and 7.5″ wide at the base. Two for your actual fabric and two for the lining
2. With the wrong sides together sandwich the lace between the actual fabric and lining sewing at 1/4″. Trim the edges and flip to the right sides.
3. Cut the lace waistband according to how loose you want it to be around your body mine was 35″
4. Cut a large rectangle for the skirt, mine was 15″l  x 70″w. On the longest stitch length possible, sew two parallel lines along the top edge of the skirt circle. On one end of the parallel stitches, tie the inner strands together. On the opposite end of the parallel stitches, tie the outer strands together
5. Tug on the untied threads to begin bunching the skirt, keep bunching until it’s the same length as the waistband but leave 1/2″ at the end
6. Once you’ve reached the right size attached the waistband to the skirt and close the edges at 1/2″
If you have a mannequin this part would be easy if not you can get someone to help you out.. in this case my sister helped me.
7. Pin and sew the top pieces to the skirt making sure it covers the bust. Sew straight at 1/2″. At this point you can try it out to see if everything is even.
8. Cut two white cords for the straps, mine was 22″. Attach the top and the skirt hand-sew it will make it easier
10. Last if your fabric has a pattern, in which case mine did follow the pattern for a clearer hem (shown below). If not fold it once at 1/4″iron, fold it again and sew the top edge.

And you’re complete! Your perfect summer dress or beach cover up.