A New Positano Dress

If you have been following my blog for a while, you will have seen this post that I have called The Positano Dress.  That was before I ever went to Positano. Now that I have actually been there and wore this dress while we were there, I had to call this dress The New Positano Dress.

It’s actually a hacked Tibi dress that I knew I had to make when I saw it in a few different fashion blogs in various colours. It came in pale blue, white and black. Then a few months later, the Australian fashion brand Country Road decided to copy the Tibi dress in black, which I was going to have a look at and possibly buy, as it would have been a lot less than the Tibi dress for US$625. But I was too slow! The Country Road dress sold out like hot cakes and so I found myself making my own. Lucky I was able to make one! Too often I see something that I am not prepared to pay a high price for and count myself lucky that I can sew and make it for only the cost of the fabric and notions! Shoes don’t count!!

I like the Tibi dress in all the colours as pictured below, but found that the blue one was very summery and chose to make that one.

  

Silly me decided to make this dress in two layers for the skirt. I already had the lining fabric in a dreamy turquoise viscose taffeta from The Fabric Store and then found a perfect match for the top layer also at The Fabric Store – a sea foam coloured cotton voile. A marriage made in heaven! Unfortunately the sea foam colour doesn’t come across in most of the photos, but it’s a beautiful soft turquoise with just a smidgen of green. It would have been a whole lot easier making the skirt out of one layer of fabric instead of two. Especially because of the dip in the hem and trying to make sure the lining was cut and sewn evenly and would not peak out from under the voile. I could have just used a cotton sateen that didn’t need any lining, but no – I had to do it the hard way. Anyway, I must admit, I do like the two layers of the skirt and the feminine feel of it swaying when I walk. Just at the time of sewing it caused me a few headaches!

I lined the bodice in the same taffeta and made very long ties that can go around my waist twice or just once and make a nice big bow on the side.

I used the Burda pattern for the bodice and had to cut it a little longer than the waist to make sure I would be able to join the skirt to it without it ending up too short. For the skirt, I used the Butterick vintage pattern that I had used for my first Positano dress because I wanted a full skirt. Then I just added very long ties to both sides of the dress and doubled the fabric because I wanted to be able to tie them up and not have any hemming showing. The voile is thin enough to be able to make them that way without looking too bulky when they are tied up.

  

The right side has an invisible zip that I managed to find in a close enough colour to the fabric.

This is definitely a dress that I would make again but next time in a non see-through fabric and without lining – at least for the skirt. I’m thinking in a black cotton with some spandex in it, which I happen to have in my stash!

As for my new Positano dress, it has worked out well and I wore it on a few occasions during our holiday. The swishing skirt is really nice to wear. It’s a very feminine dress that can be worn with heels or flats on various occasions.

Beautiful, tiny little Positano!

STYLING: gladiator shoes – Zara, sandals – handmade from little shop in Amalfi, silver bracelet – Witchery, silver ring – Apart Fashion, sunglasses – Carlina square by Chloe, leather bag – Zara Man

LOCATIONS: Positano and Rome, Italy