Sweet as Honey

This little black sweater by Kate Spade has been around diy blogs the past few months. I really love the sweater but wanted something a bit more appropriate for spring, so I designed this dress inspired by the bee sweater.



I wanted to keep the sophisticated and whimsical feel to the dress that I got from the sweater. I chose to work with New Look 6723, version A.



Since the neckline in this version is so high, I chose to open up the back so it wasn't so prim. I thought the three-quarter length sleeve was appropriate for chilly spring weather we have in Chicago and accented the elbows with a big satin bow.



For the bee, I looked at all the iron-ons available at local sewing shops but didn't find anything that was sophisticated enough. Of course, most of the sequin iron-ons were pretty childish, and not the look I was after. I decided to just make my own and quickly sketched the bee onto some felt and applied hot glue and seed beads for a bit of sparkle. I drew the bee's flight path onto the dress with some chalk and then stitched it with white embroidery thread.



I really REALLY wanted the lining of the skirt to be white and yellow stripes but couldn't find any locally. I was so bummed, but not enough to pay for it plus shipping for the hidden accent. I had some gold and black stripe in my stash and decided to use that instead, but really do regret now not having just paid for the fabric I initially wanted!

This was my first time working with a New Look pattern, and I found the dress to be much larger than I expected it to be. I would have liked it to be a size smaller and probably should have made a muslin first. I don't really care to take time to make a muslin unless I'm using really expensive fabric or making major modifications. The dress is fully lined and I'm too lazy to fix it...I'm not sure that I'll wear this dress too often anyhow, so I suppose it's fine!

Thanks to Suzannah from Adventures in Dressmaking for hosting Adventures with Sweetie Pie Bakery!