A Gabby Dress for Frocktails

On the weekend was the long-awaited Frocktails shindig down in Melbourne (sew a frock and come drink cocktails with like-minded souls). I had been looking forward to my weekend away in Melbourne ALL year and decided to take a few extra days off work and make a real long weekend of it.  Just my luck though I came down with a cold the day after arriving in Melbourne which had escalated in to a full blown cold on the night of the party. Wah! 

After having six attempts at coming up with a wearable dress for the night there was no way I was going to miss Frocktails, so I took my Codral, gargled some aspirin and dolled myself up for the night....

You've seen this fabric before - in the toile for the Lady Skater Dress that I made recently. The fabric is a lovely ponti from Tessuti which I had always intended my Frocktails dress to be made out of (I initially bought 2m to make a Casual Lady Dress which my overlocker ate, so I made it again from the remaining 1m...which my overlocker also ate - turns out the needles needed to be changed)! The fabric is comfortable but I think the lace print makes it look a little bit fancy.

There's not a lot to say about this dress that I've not said before. I made the dress with short sleeves as I remember being SO hot at the Sydney Frocktails last year and didn't want to overheat again this year.

The dress is worn with some big, bright beads bought in Bali a few years ago.  The bag is a cheapie from Colette (matches the beads as I'm all about matchy matchy), stockings are from Sonsee, shoes from Paul Dane and the sparkly cardigan is from Sarah Jane in Newtown. The cardigan is made from wool so was warm up to race up to the venue in without donning a big coat. I was really comfortable all night and my shoes only started to hurt as I walked back to the hotel - not bad for brand new shoes.

All in all it was a great night though I only managed to stay for 3 hours before my cold got the better of me. I was a bit out of it all night and SOOOO tired so my conversational skills were really lacking which is a shame as 51 people attended and I'd only met a handful of the ladies I'd wanted to say HI too. Oh well..there's always next year...

Pattern: "Gabby Dress" by Tessuti
Size: M, sewn with 3/8" seam allowance and left at a size L at the shoulders. The hem is 1"(behold my knees people)!
Modifications: none
Fabric: Ponti (again) from Tessuti (again)
Changes for next time: none, though I think it's time to try this dress again in a woven, I have some nice soft silk/cotton that I bought in Malaysia that I'd like to bust out of the stash.