Mary Adams "The Party Dress"

This post is in honor of the wonderful Josephine's Dry Goods, a wonderful fabric store in Portland that just closed it's doors yesterday, sniff.

A few years ago I walked past the window of Josephine's and there was this amazing dress in the window, along with a copy of Mary Adam's The Party Dress book and a notice that she would be in town to teach a class. Sigh. Wouldn't that be fun, I thought. Fast forward a year. My friend Lisa and I were walking past again, and again there was a notice that Mary Adams would be there. "We're signing up," was all Lisa said. So we did.

We bought outrageously beautiful and expensive fabric, and for two days we sewed with the wonderful Mary Adams. My dress is made with purple dupioni silk with a purple lace overlay on the bodice and black silk organza overlay on the skirt.

Mary Adams consulting with a
class member.

I originally had a red organza for my skirt which I  pin-tucked.

My dress as I originally imagined it. The red didn't
match the purple silk of the top, so I opted to make a black
organza overlay for the skirt instead.I still have the
red skirt, maybe some day I'll make another party dress!
 

The final dress. I added three rows of thin black gross
grain ribbon to the skirt and a black bow belt from Forever 21.

Since I'm not really into strapless dresses, I used the lace
overlay of the bodice to make cap sleeves, held in
place with quarter inch black elastic in the seam.