Lekala #5585 Dress for Zara's 21st

 Catching up on my Blogging....

I made this snazzy little number in September, last year, for Zara's 21st.

The pattern is Lekala #5585 

Sewing for my older girls is not easy. They are not at home anymore and with the COVID restrictions we do not do that many trips to Town. I like the custom fit nature of Lekala as I can save on fittings. I can make the garment up to 'final fit' stage.

Zara chose the fabric, it is from Spotlight and was around $30/m. I was pleased with how nice and soft it was. I used a nude tricot for lining the skirt and finished the darts separately but then placed the pieces, wrong sides together, and treated as one.

This made it a lot easier to fit the side seams.

The bodice is self lined. I made ties from the same fabric.

Rather than sewing the ties in place, I made small loops so Zara can thread the ties through and then knot them, to allow for the fabric stretching.

~Zara's Verdict~

Mum made me the most gorgeous dress for my 21st birthday. I had planned on going out to a fancy restaurant and wanted something fabulous to wear and mum definitely provided the goods. I felt like a fairy in the most gorgeous sparkly fabric (that I spotted in Spotlight and had my eye on for a while). The cut out at the front was perfect placement for my devils ink (snort NMK) and not to mention how comfortable the dress was. I styled the look with a 2000’s half up hairdo and black knee high 90’s boots.

~My Verdict~

Lekala has saved my skin, more than once, with their custom fit patterns. With a little tweaking, we get a great fit.

I did shorten the dress by quite a bit, Zara would have liked it a little shorter again but then we would have cut of the bottom of the darts and messed with the zipper.

I got Zara to get me 4 metres, to be safe and I had so much left over I was able to make her some pull on pants, for Christmas (to be blogged)

Lekala don't have much in the way of instructions and this pattern was missing quite a few notches, so I did refer to the diagram quite a bit while sewing it.

I used an invisible zipper, I sewed it into the (almost) finished dress and then sort of wrapped the back piece facing around it, right sides together, stitched, flipped and then stitched-in-the-ditched that piece in place.

(Clear as mud, right)?

It made for a very neat finish.

A fun sew and Zara looked super cute!

Thank you for reading xxx Nicole