Years ago, I saw a picture of Brandy wearing a gorgeous, golden mini dress. I saved the picture to my Pinterest board and honestly forgot about it until recently. I decided to research the dress and learned that it was called the Good Luck dress, and it was made by a designer named Arianne Elmy. The dress’s silhouette is so effortlessly chic that I knew I needed one for myself. Unfortunately, there are no available dresses even close to my size for sale. Time to make my own! Using the Closet Core Crew pattern Marigold and this stunning embroidered cotton linen fabric from Longan Craft, I created what I’m calling my Woven Wishes dress.
The design of this dress truly came from wanting to show off how beautiful this fabric is. A simple mini dress is the perfect way to appreciate the fabric, without it becoming too cumbersome or heavy to wear. Originally, I was going to line the dress, but that completely restricted the airflow. Despite being a moderately heavy fabric, the holes created by the embroidery function as tiny vents for air to pass through. This fabric was a delight to work with. I was a little concerned that the embroidery would fray or unravel as I started cutting and working the fabric. Those concerns quickly disappeared, and I found myself shocked at how well the embellishments held up. The fabric went through my sewing machine and serger like a breeze! If you’re interested in trying out Longan Craft, use promo code Basmashimmies for 15% off the entire site. From corduroys to chiffon and everything in between, Longan Craft has you covered!
While Elmy’s Good Luck dress served as inspiration, I knew there were a couple tweaks to her design that I wanted to make. First and foremost was removing the seam that runs through the center back and front of the dress. It’s not noticeable in some fabrics, but to me, it was a bit of an eyesore. I also wanted to change the neckline and sleeve binding. On the original dress, the main fabric is used as binding. I did this on the hem, but wanted to protect the dress from any makeup smudges that could happen while putting on and wearing the dress. It’s so much easier to remove brown makeup from green bias tape than it is from beige cotton linen! Finally, I knew that I wanted to add pockets. If at all possible, every dress should have pockets!
Once I figured out what I wanted, I scanned my inventory of patterns and landed on Marigold. I chose Marigold because the looseness of the bodice and the voluminous dolman sleeves matched perfectly with what I wanted in my dress. However, Marigold is for knit patterns and translating that onto woven fabrics can be tricky, if not impossible. This project could’ve easily turned out to be a disaster. Thankfully, after double (and triple) checking the measurements, elongating the sleeves, widening and elongating the bodice to create a skirt, I’m happy to report that this hack was a success! The finished dress is so beautiful and romantic in a timeless sort of way.
