photos by Jenae Briggs Photography
It’s time for another Recreating Kate dress! I’ve been thinking about what styles and ideas I want to share with you, and one of the things I love most about sewing and creating is that you can take the things you love most about a piece and use it to create something of your own.
Take this Zimmerman dress, for instance. It’s gorgeous. I love everything about it. I can’t find it since it’s from last year and the Kate Effect (where everyone buys what she’s wearing as soon as she wears it) made it a highly sought-after piece. It was priced at $550. And I’m sure you can see why.
But sometimes you don’t want to make things exactly the same. For instance, this dress is made with eyelet and has some beautiful pieced detail that really sets the dress apart. I loved the effect those details give while remaining simple and classic. But I wanted to play with the idea of the striped detail and direction of the fabrics without doing an exact copy. I love the detail at the waistband, the cuffs on the sleeve, and the bottom banding. So those are the details I focused on.
I also ran short on fabric since I’d already made Brynley’s dress out of the same pieces, so I wasn’t able to create the a-line skirt. It totally changes the silhouette of the dress, but the parts I loved are all there. And instead of hundreds of dollars, it cost about $15 since the sheet was given to me, the striped IKEA curtain was a $5 clearance, and I had to buy a zipper and the pattern.
I started with Simplicity 2444 and made a few alterations. For the most part, I followed the pattern for construction with a few tweaks. I’ll walk you through the changes I made and why.
While my creation isn’t quite the same as the beautiful eyelet Zimmerman dress, I love it. When I wear it, I feel elegant with a fresh outlook on the day. I love the lean silhouette and how I still have all the design elements I loved about the Zimmerman dress.
If you liked what I did with the Zimmerman dress, make sure to read more about the Recreating Kate series and see the other posts!
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This is gorgeous, Lisa! I love that you and Brynley can coordinate, too! :)
Mommy and me styles are in, so I need to embrace it. We did wear our dresses to church the same day and got some comments. :)
You did a great job of recreating Kate's dress! Posts like this make me wish my sewing machine wasn't currently broken. I miss making things.
Thank you so much for your sweet comment. I hope your machine is fixed soon so you can get back to sewing!
Awesome job! I love how you changed the direction of the fabric for the detailing. You look great in it too! :)
Thank you Jillene! The details really make the dress. :)
Sooo pretty!! I love the details you captured!
Thank you, Amy! The details are definitely my favorite part.
This is beautiful!
Thank you so much, Crystal!