Hey friends! I won a Mood gift card at the end of August and immediately knew I had to pick up Mood x Balenciaga fabric. I had this runway pic saved for months! I looove a good co-ord set. This specific style has several elements that appeal to me: the knee length skirt, matching boots, orange hue, and modest style.

On this post, I’ll share the making of the dress, which is a mock neck top and a circle skirt. The second part will be all about the boots!

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Fabric

The Mood x Balenciaga orange floral is stretch cotton jersey and has an amazing luxurious feel.

With my gift card I received four yards and I ordered a half yard additional. I had exactly enough, so I recommend AT LEAST five yards to recreate the runway look with a long sleeve turtleneck, circle skirt, and legging boots.

I had to do a bit of pattern tetris to cut the legging boots (details will be in Part II). I have a half yard odd shape leftover of fabric. Perhaps cutting the back and front top on a single layer instead of the fold would be a better use of the fabric for this look.

Patterns

To recreate the Balenciaga runway dress, I combined a mock neck pattern and a self-drafted circle skirt.

Turtleneck Top

I downloaded this turtleneck pattern by Kiana Bonollo last year while browsing Etsy for knit tops.

I recently started following Kiana Bonollo on socials, how fun is that? I’m so impressed with the online sewing community and how talented sewists are. I’ve now been sewing for ten years, but I’ve only dipped into the world of indie sewing patterns and the online sewing community in the past couple years!

This is the first pattern I tried from Kiana Bonollo. I’m happy to report that this turtleneck pattern fits great and it was soo easy to put together!

I cut a size small and the mock-neck view. There are 1/2” seam allowances included in the pattern. I ended up sewing the side seams and sleeve seams with a zig-zag stitch at 1/4”. I shortened the bodice 4” to attach the skirt piece.

I changed the sewing construction steps to sew the sleeves flat:

-Sew shoulder seams first.

-Pin sleeves right sides together to the bodice.

-Sew sleeve cap all the way around.

-I like to sew the sleeve hem next before the side seams.

-Then, turn garment to the wrong side and sew from sleeve hem to bodice hem to finish the side seams and sleeves.

-You can use a zig-zag or serger for all seams.

Circle Skirt

I used this formula to draft the circle skirt:

Inner circle (waist): Waist measurement/pi: 27/3.14= 8.5

Length: 20″ including 1/2” waist and hem seam allowance.

Outer circle (hem): Length + inner circle measurement: 20 + 8.5 = 28″

This circle skirt formula gives one seam, which I have at the center back. Layout your fabric so that the fold is the center front and the raw edges are the center back seam.

Styling

I wore the dress with orange boots I had. They are from Public Desire and honestly not very wearable but for a photos they are perfect!

Check out my Reel on sewing this Balenciaga dress!

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for Part II on the legging boots!

-Ammara
Follow me on instagram @ammaraza.sews

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