The Tell Tale Tasha: A Quick Dress for a Gala

Hello, Friends! So, suffice it to say, I lied. lol I said I was taking a personal sewing break for the remainder of the year and then a few days later I needed a new dress. I was going to a Gala and I misread the dress code and thought it was cocktail attire. I had a dress ready in my closet for that, but something made me look at the event details again a few days before the gala and I realized it was actually black tie. I had one or two dresses in my closet, but not that I was interested in wearing for this event in particular so I did what most of us do... went to my sewing room to look for a pattern and some fabric lol

This is McCall's 8339, View C in a size 16.

I bought this fabric in October when I went to New York for NYC Frocktails (see that vlog here). I picked it up in the Garment District at Chic Fabrics. It is a BEAUTIFUL navy stretch "crinkle" fabric with a gold foil design. This fabric is extremely light and actually a little bit see-through.

I chose this fabric because it was a knit and I needed something very quick. Plus it was the fanciest knit fabric in my stash, so although I just bought it, I went ahead and used it ahead of all of the other options.

I chose to use McCall's 8339 because I have made SO many dresses with the twist feature in the front so I knew I would be able to get through that part really quickly. Plus, with the pattern being for knits, there were no closures at all. It was a simple pattern with enough interest in the details so it was the perfect selection.

The other awesome part about using this knit was that I didn't have to finish the seams. That was very useful as I was making this a couple of hours before the gala. I just pressed all of the seams flat and that worked great.

As for modifications, I added 6 inches to the length of the dress to accommodate my height plus heels. I ended up hemming it 1 inch for it to be the perfect length.

I also lowered the neckline and lowered the height of the skirt slit. I wanted this dress to be very classy, but I didn't want to lose the sexiness of my personal style so I made the neckline as plunge as I felt comfortable with. In doing that, I had to nix the neck facing from the pattern. I just folded the fabric over about 5/8" and sewed it down.

I lowered the height of the slit because I know how it feels to sit down in a dress that has a front slit and it's too high. Your underwear practically shows and you have to sit in an awkward position most of the time. I wanted to be very comfortable and confident, so I lowered the height to where, when I sat, the dress imitated a mid-thigh mini skirt.

The dress ended up being really beautiful for the occasion! The only thing I would do differently if I make it again (honestly, when) is to reduce the width of the elastic for the back waist seam. That really could've snatched my waist a lot more and given an even better silhouette, but I was in such a rush, I didn't want to keep fussing with it.