This month's tutorial was a pleated belt I created for a dress I made. You could see a bit of the dress in the belt photos, but here is the finished product.

It's one of those classic, simple dresses. I thought afterwards perhaps I had "wasted" a solid color on it, but it does have some subtle detail, especially in the back where the slim skirt blossoms with the unexpected fulness of pleats.

The fabric was described as a "steel blue" rayon with an ottoman weave, and it is such a pretty color. It was fine to work with; not so fun to press. Also hard to control on a windy day, trying to snatch photos with a storm blowing up! (Any dark spots are rain drops. 🙂

This was one of the earlier patterns I collected, and finally got around to making it when I wanted something subtle but classy to wear to a wedding. The style of dress and the graphics make me think it's probably from 1950 or 1951.

The belt adds another special touch, and I like being able to coordinate different flower clips with it. For these photos I went with ivory accents and pearls, but it goes well with silver flowers and rhinestones too!

And incidentally…I love covered buttons.

The sleeves have shaping darts at the elbow and a turned up cuff to mirror the turned down collar. 

Come to think of it, this pattern reminds me a lot of the one pictured in the magazine picture I admired in this post. It would be a good candidate for a re-creation, don't you think?