I fell in love with this fabric from AK Fabrics in Manhattan. Immediately I dreamed of so many ideas with this fabric from pants, to a top, to a full evening dress!

I had the fabric sitting around for several months before I picked it up on a whim and went straight to work! Sadly I didn’t end up buying enough for sleeves, so I decided on a strapless dress idea. As a working pregnant mama at the time, it took several weeks to draft the pattern, cut and sew. I didn’t make a pattern before-hand, but spent a good deal of time fitting the fabric on myself and seeing what design works with the fabric I had!

Using a leather sewing needle, it was easy to sew! I sewed it together with a silk lining. I used my fave trick for sewing specialty fabrics – sewing the fabric wrong (inside) side up, with a tissue paper underneath, so it can run smoothly under the machine.

The dress morphed as I went along. I spent a good deal of time adjusting bodice darts, until I ended covering them up anyway with a bodice layer, which I added for more dimension to the dress.

For the bodice layer, I sandwiched a grosgrain ribbon between the silk lining and leather for structure. I found that the easiest.

It’s usually a no-no, but I like the zipper peaking through here. Semi done on purpose: I knew I didn’t have a matching zipper, so I used a color I had that would pop in a cool way if it shows.

An impromtu dress that changed many times as I went along, I’m pretty happy with the final result!