"Bonheur"

I suspect most of you know about this company already, but I LOVE the dresses from Shabby Apple.  Problem is the average price is about $80.00 -- far too expensive for my slim budget.  Last fall I saw their dress Bonheur and loved it, but $76 was out of my price range.  Besides, I thought it bore striking resemblance to a pattern I already had in my collection, Simplicity's "Threads" line 3877.

So, I made my own!  I used a sturdy-weight cotton and pewter buttons.  I've made this dress up a couple times, once with the mandarin collar option and once just the skirt attached to the bodice of another shirt-dress.  This time, I lengthened the sleeves slightly and turned the cuffs up only once.  I kept the bodice the same length but gave it a waistband (which I did the first time I made this pattern because I forgot to add length, and I loved the way it looked!)  I adapted the wrap bodice to mimic the cut of the Shabby Apple dress.  It's a mock wrap, attached all the way around, and opens with a side zipper.

I also changed the cut of the neckline to reflect the inspiration dress, and also to be a little more modest than the Simplicity pattern.  I drafted pockets like those on the Shabby Apple dress, and made an extra-long sash, since the original wraps twice.  All the bodice seams are flat-felled; the skirt was supposed to be French-seamed but I made it in a hurry so the edges are still raw.  I need to go back and finish them properly.  I think this came out pretty close to the inspiration dress!  It's not exact, but the "feel" is the same and it's really fun to wear.

I wanted to do a photo shoot with a similar setting and similar poses to the original, as well.  I finished the dress in time to take it to Italy in March, and I really wanted to do a shoot there -- the inspiration dress was photographed in France and it would have been fun to have a European shoot!  But we were all much too busy sightseeing to stop and take photos of our clothing.  So I only have one decent shot of it, sitting on the edge of a fountain near St. Mark's square in Venice, waiting for the rest of the group to show up so we could go on a gondola ride.  No make up and my hair was everywhere -- but it's in Europe! ;-)

 For the rest of the photos we went onto campus and tried to find European-looking spots for pictures :-)

This is a great summer dress - light and airy and easy to wear.  And it cost me only a third of the Shabby Apple price!  I think this is going to be the first in a series of "knock-off dresses" -- there's another Shabby Apple one I've got the perfect fabric for, and I have so many others on my wish-list!