OPML Contest -- First Dress

So I've entered the One Pattern Many Looks contest on Patternreview.com.   For those of you who don't know, the OPML contest involves taking a single view of a pattern and making it up in with different fabrics, trims, color blocking, hem and sleeve lengths, etc to make many different looks without changing the actual structure of the pattern.

I've decided to use my princess seamed knit dress pattern that I've made several times before, albeit as a maxi dress.  This is a pattern that I've been refining for the past couple of years, and I won't say it's perfect, but I do like it alot.

For this contest, I changed the neckline to a more of a scoop neck than a crew neck.  And I cut many inches of the hem so that it falls just above the knee instead of at the ankle.  The sleeves remain long sleeves, since even Spring in New England is pretty chilly, so that, if nothing else, I'll have a few three season dresses out of my efforts.

This is the first one that I'm sharing.  The picture could be a little clearer -- I'll have to take a few more. I used a deep red cotton jersey with a black floral print for the main body and solid black cotton/lycra for the trim.  The cotton/lycra didn't really want to play very nicely with the plain cotton jersey, but I gave it a bit of a lecture and it agreed to behave.  You have to talk to fabric, you know.  It is often very open to reason.











I decided to use color blocking to make a contrasting waist band type thing in the black, and then bound the neckline and sleeve hems with it as well.  Is it terribly creative?  Not really.  But I do like the effect.  I was wondering what to do with this red floral fabric, and I think this really fits.  And since it's broken up by the black, I don't look quite so much like I'm being eaten up by a bunch of black flowers.  I like it, and I am very pleased with this first attempt.










I can pair it up with black boots, but it also looks good with my high heeled shoes, low heeled shoes, and ballet flats.  A fairly versatile dress.