It is a cocktail dress by Nicola Finetti. I wasn't familiar with this designer so of course I had to check him out, and I must say that I do like his style. He is an Italian Australian fashion designer who launched his fashion label in 1995. This dress is from his 2015 Pre-Fall collection. He calls this a Miyake Lace V-Neck Dress. I thought the dress was very striking and I love to dress up when I have a wedding to do or go to. Since I had girlfriend getting married this past weekend, I thought it was the perfect choice.
My first obstacle was finding the fabric. I didn't have a lot of time. I made several phone calls and and the problem I came up against was that I could get lace in a 2-way stretch knit, but not with a scalloped edge. I even went to JoAnn's and came up empty. I ended up getting a scalloped edge lightweight nylon lace with minimal to no stretch. To compensate for not having the 2-way stretch, I cut the pattern pieces slightly larger, hence that is why my skirt is longer than the original pattern. I'm contemplating taking off the ruffle skirt to shorten the regular skirt,but haven't decided yet. Below is my review.
Pattern Description:
Pattern Sizing:
A5(6-8-10-12-14), E5(14-16-18-20-22)
I cut between a 14 and 16 to compensate for not having any stretch but normally cut a 14.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes it did, but I modified the skirt and made it longer to compensate for the lace fabric not having any stretch.
Were the instructions easy to follow?
The instructions were well written and I followed them to the letter. I love Vogue patterns because they are a wealth of information and they always teach me something new.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I loved everything about this pattern. The dress is classy and makes you feel sexy at the same time. I liked that the dress was underlined and then lined. Before you started sewing the dress, you had to underline each piece of the lace which was treated as one piece of fabric after basting and then on top of that, you had to line the dress after that.
Fabric Used:
I had a hard time finding 2-way stretch lace with a scalloped edge. I called all over the place and ended up using a nylon lace with a scalloped edge with, minimal stretch. For the underlining and lining I used a taupe rayon knit with, 2-way stretch instead of tricot. I fell in love with the way the taupe color looked under the black lace and thought it would look good with my skin tone. I got both pieces from London Textiles.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I omitted the exposed zipper and used an invisible zipper. To compensate for not having the stretch in the lace, I cut my pieces slightly larger to make sure the dress would fit. I also made the skirt portion longer as I did not have enough time to make a muslin, before cutting this dress out. The model in the photo does not have a large cleavage. I on the other hand do have cleavage so I had to sew up the front a little bit, and my cleavage still managed to make an appearance.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
This is a dress that only needs to be sewn once, but I actually want to sew it again with a 2-way stretch lace without a scalloped edge and I think I"m going to do that. I definitely recommend this dress to others. If you have never sewn with lace before, this is definitely the dress to try it on. Every girl should have a bit of lace in their closet. Go for it.
Conclusion:
I love everything about this dress. As I said before, it makes you feel sexy and classy at the same time. This is definitely a keeper.
