A Pear Shape (or Vogue Triangle) in a Bias Cut Dress

About this post:  Rather than mindlessly sewing, which is what I usually do, I decided to spend some time researching the fit and flow of clothes in my closet.  Due to the limited amount of time I have to sew, I thought it would be best to know where I'm going before I begin the next leg of this journey.  Well, that and the fact that 90% of what I made last year ended up in the donation bin.

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When it comes to body shape, I am a pear.  Or a triangle.  Or an "A".  It all depends on who you ask.  In the end, it all means one thing -- my hips are wider than my shoulders.  Not only that, my shape comes complete with luggage in the form of saddlebags (Please someone, give it another name -- I keep picturing Harleys.  Wait saddlebags on a Harley are not only a sexy addition, they also mean that it's time to hit the road for adventure.  Saddlebags it is.).  This body configuration makes is very difficult to wear anything that is cut on the bias.  If you are a pear with saddlebags, you know what I mean.  Skirts or dresses on the bias tend do mean things to me, such as:

• pointing to my hips.   I mean, really pointing to my hips.
• making me look like a mermaid, in a very "not good" way.
• making me look like an ice cream cone, in particular, a sugar cone.
• hitching up when I walk.  What I mean is the skirt portion will ride up in the back and then bag right above the hiney zone.  (This is not a pretty.)

So, I avoid bias cuts.  They just don't work.  For fun, I tried a bias cut mixed media skirt from Coldwater Creek.  When I stopped laughing, I took it off.  It was one hot mess.

Enter this dress from Talbots. 

Made of a linen-look cotton, it is cut on the bias.  The shape of the dress is A-line.  Sans belt (which I decided to tie in an obi-like fashion due to the fact that I do not like the way I look in fabric tie belts), it is a relatively shapeless sack despite the darts.  But one thing it does have is pockets!  In seam pockets!  That makes me happy.

As you can see, this dress is not clinging where it shouldn't cling.  This is a very good thing.  It is also lined with white cotton batiste.  The only issue I have with this dress is the fact that the lining is also cut on the bias.  Since it's close to the body, I could feel a little hitching action while I moved about during the day.  I realized, much later, that one of the anchor thread strings had come undone.  Given the fabric's loose weave, it's not surprising.  Before I wear this dress again, I plan to re-achor the lining using small buttons on the fabric side to keep it from slipping through the weave again.  I did learn that unless this lining is anchored, it will end up around my hips because, like I said, a bias cut is generally unkind to my body type, especially given the amount of moving I do during any given work day.

Despite the lining, the fabric still hand a tendency to bag around the knees, but after moving about a bit, the fabric did recover.  An added bonus -- soft wrinkling as opposed to those harsh sitting wrinkles. 

How I Made This Dress Work Appropriate

I'll start off by saying I'm "old school."  I do not believe bare shoulders are a good match for a corporate environment.  Plus, I work in A/C.  So, to make this dress more appropriate for work, I donned this cardigan from Macy's:

This cardi is pretty busy with it's flowers, that I kept it simple with the jewelry.  Just a pink leaf print bracelet that I adore. 

 I became very fascinated with the embellished sweaters this past winter season and decided, after much deliberation, that I could add them to my wardrobe and still wear them as if they were a classic garment.  I had planned on refashioning an existing sweater when I realized that I didn't know how it was done.

As you can see, the flowers are just cut out of fabric and left to ravel at will.  This particular sweater has french knots (something I could never stand to do when I was cross-stitching.  It's a very pretty effect.  Rather than tie off each thread (which is something I would do), it is done with long strands of thread which make an interesting map on the inside of the sweater.  (Note to self:  be careful not to snag the threads on the inside).






This dress makes interesting use of topstitching in a way that never occurred to me (not sure why).  For instance topstitched darts and center seam. It really makes the dress more interesting so I'm going to file it in my memory banks for future reference.

All in all, I really like this dress and, of course, I love the sweater.  The belt stayed nicely tied all day, which is quite unusual.  I can't say that I stayed cool all day because I didn't and don't expect to be cool during summer days.  The reason -- shapewear.  I refused to be parted with my beloved shapewear now that I've gotten used to wearing it.  So, yes, between my foundation garments and sweater I was hot when I went outside.  The flip side of that, however, is the fact that I work in an air-conditioned building that I truly thinks that sub-zero is an acceptable temperature.  This ensemble was adequate for the inside temperatures although I think, come July, this sweater will spend a lot of time on the hanger in my closet and only to come out to play on Sundays for church (yeah -- you can hang meat in our church in summer).
 

And now, for my parting shot, my shoes.  I really, really like shoes because, for me, this is a neutral colored shoe.  (See Stacy and Clinton, I've been listening!)

Dress:  Talbots.com outlet ($39.00)
Shoes: Ann Klein (via Amazon.com) ($21.00)
Sweater:  Macys.com ($28.00)
Bracelet: Macys.com ($8.00)