And The Winner Is...

Me! I do have a neat new dress.

And Anthea, who will be receiving a size 14 pattern. (You'll have to send me your address at carmencitab (at) carmencitab (dot) com)

As both Tasia from Sewaholic and Anthea are likely to make this dress, here are the modifications I made to the pattern : 

- As I've shown you, I've lowered the breast about an inch, both because of my aging breast but also because undergarments were different back then. I was being a bit dramatic about my age the other day!

- As per usual for a pattern from that era, the armscye is ridiculously small and I have big arms, so I added a bit more room there too by enlarging the sewing allowance.

- And, instead of gathers, I made pleats because the fabric has a certain French Marie-Antoinette vibe that was screaming "please, pleat me", but also, I absolutely love Watteau pleats. I want Watteau pleats ever since I took a costume history class in Concordia University's Department of Theatre and I want them even more since I saw Fanny Ardant turn in her Franca Squarciapino designed purple coat in the movie Colonel Chabert. Now that was an exit!

In fact, I will make this dress again and will make the pleats historically accurate so the back looks more like Petit Main Sauvage's Watteau. 

Everybody should be able to make a grand exit once in their lifetime.