Fall Concert Dress

*drumroll* Ladies and germs, I am very excited to bring you the Very First Blog Dress! It's a dress for the fall concert with my community band. (As if you couldn't tell that from my post title!) I saw this gorgeous stretch jersey at Wal-Mart for $2 a yard, and I had to have it. Like most Wal-Mart fabric, it's of middling quality, but since I'm still learning, I don't exactly want to buy really expensive fabrics. (And I don't have much money to spend on really expensive fabric anyway, so there ya go!) Here it is:

Isn't that a great color? I got this gorgeous brown lace at Hobby Lobby for an overlay; I thought the autumn-y orange and brown would be awesome and entirely appropriate for a fall concert:

I'm making it in this pattern, Simplicity 3785:

Sorry for the crummy pic, but their website won't let you copy and paste the pattern pictures. Here's a link for those of you who would like to check it out further:
http://www.simplicity.com/p-2011-misses-special-occasion-dresses.aspx
I'm making the short sleeveless version. It's just about the perfect concert dress. The bodice is low enough to be sexy without being so low as to make anybody faint. (Not that my barely-B's are going to be making anyone faint soon, but you get the idea.) It's flowy and non-binding, so I won't be getting unfortunate belly bulges when I breathe in. The length is perfect too. I don't like wearing floor-length or ankle-length dresses to concerts since they tend to get caught on chair legs, stand legs, and instruments, and disentangling yourself, while amusing for the audience, can be very embarrassing for you. And if you sit in the front row like I do (I play oboe) you can't go above-the-knee either unless you want to show your lady bits to the audience, which I really have no personal desire to do. Mid-calf isn't really an option for me, as it gives me a really bad case of the dreaded Stumpy Legs Syndrome, so just-below-the-knee is the most optimal concert length for me-long enough to give coverage but short enough that I'm not getting tangled in things. If this dress works out, I have some gorgeous red crinkled satin that I might make in this pattern for a Christmas concert/party dress.