Susan Sews a Little Black Beach Dress

After the great success of my va va va voom dress, I decided to make another dress that would accent my curves and would be appropriate for dinner out or lunch at the beach.
Should I make a hot pink number with striped knit trim?  Or an animal print? I decided to make a little black dress, one that would be fun to wear, and have nice lines, have a little interest, and a lot of sex appeal. 
 I like princess or empire line dresses. they accentuate the lovely part of my curvaceous shape. 
So I leafed through my Lutterloh pattern book and came up with this dress:

 I can hear you now, ” That is NOT a dress, it is a slip!”
 And right you are!  
“And it does not look the least bit sexy.”
Right-o!
  ” How can you consider going out in public in that slip?”
Well dear ones, here is the truth about sewing and fashion: It is all about, color, line and fit.
To be a success at sewing and designing, you must be able to look past the obvious, and see the lines, envision this garment in say, red silk with black lace trim.
 That would be sexy wouldn’t it?
 Wouldn’t it?
“Yes, but then it would not be a lunch at the beach dress.”
You are right again.
But if I made it in a luscious cotton double knit with a bit of zebra print trim it would have that nice bit of wildness and not be too dressy. And it will look like this:

 Now what? What is bothering you now?
“It doesn’t look that exciting on a hanger.”
And there you go being right again. But I showed it on the hanger  so you can see the shape of the dress before you see it on me.
You can see that the zebra print curves nicely in the front and follows the top edge of the dress all the way around. 
The straps fit me perfectly, by the way. No sliding off my shoulder. No pulling. They fit perfectly.
 Actually the dress fits perfectly because the pattern was drafted from my measurements. 
After an expensive six-day retreat trying to use another pattern making system, I temporarily lost my Sewing Mojo. It was such a terrible experience that I was convinced  that I was a fat, ugly misshapen dwarf. I wrote to my friend Sonja Bezuidenhout, the Lutterloh maven and told her how badly I felt. Sonja lives in New Zealand. Back in June she held a two-day hands-on Lutterloh workshop in Dallas where my daughter lives. I zoomed up there and learned so much in two days. I had already paid my money for the torture course. So  I went. All I can say is,  taht I found some delicious pinot noir and made a few new friends. The best thing  that I learned was that I was on the right path with Lutterloh.
Sonja told me to pick a pattern and draft it and she would work side by side with me until my Mojo returned. That is all it took, to be treated nicley and made to feel like the intelligent person that I am.
 I made a dress, sent the photo to Sonja and she sent back raves, and said that I inspired her.
Back to the dress here are some photos of the finished number. Oh, BTW the responses from friends were:
 ” Wow, sexy!” 
“You look fabulous!”
“It fits you perfectly.”
 And I love the dress, I feel wonderful in it, and it is comfortable. 

I was a windy November day, my hair was almost stanidng on edge, but I just felt so pretty.
So, see, that pale green slip looked prim and proper, but with a little imagination became a  subtly, sexy Little Black Beach dress.

I think I shall wear it or something like it when we have a holiday dinner on the beach in our front yard.

Happy Thanksgiving!