Musings on a Spring Outfit: Choosing a suitable dress style

Crocus

With hints of Spring coming, I have been thinking about a few dressy dresses and a certain coat for church and special occasions.  This is the time of year, weather permitting, lighter weight and brighter outfits can be worn.  One new outfit sometimes brightens the outlook when skies darken and  clouds hover.  Fabric stores have been bringing in new bolts of fabric for Spring and Summer uses.  Choosing a color whether in solid, print or geometrics should match with jackets worn in  warmer weather.


Choosing a dress that is becoming must be carefully considered.  The contemporary styles of knit clothing do not necessarily bring about the glances or thoughts that would uplift minds to seeing Christ in us.  Our choices should be so that it makes us beautiful as in God honoring, not in lustiness or vulgarity.  Our society is bombarded in all avenues of vision with much exposure of the body and this can be in explicit lucidity as well as in clinging clothing.  Focus and purpose of clothing is to draw attention to our Christlike countenance  rather than emphasis on our particularly womanly features.  God wants us to be distinctive in that we dress like ladies rather than gentlemen;  i.e., our clothing is not to be uni-sex, man-styled, make us manly looking, or have a masculine hint.  Here is a wonderful article by Lady Lydia on clothing for women.


Choosing a dress silhouette is basically deciding which lines look best for you.  Looking at a dress from the shoulders down, consider what lines you  like and what works best for you.  These are the principles of design--making lines which best suit YOU.

Considering the shoulder seams are there, the dress that has only side seams, with or without bust darts, and a back zipper:

• the straight shift
• the A-line
• the tunic style-layered
• the loose tent style

Then there are the princess lines:

• lines coming over the bust from the shoulder seam
• lines coming from the armhole replacing the bust dart

If there are lines added across the body so bodice and skirt are two pieces sewn together:

• the sheath
• the low-waisted dress
• the high waisted dress
• the empire
• the asymmetrical closing dress
• the yoked dress
• bloused-look (blouson)
• the shirtwaist

These are the basics from which there are many designer creative varieties.

At this conjuncture, I will have to make another post on what silhouettes look best on different body types.

My thoughts for a dress and coat that I would like to try are:

I would make view D in a print and make the length longer.

Butterick 5966   This has nice princess lines and would fit nicely over the above dress.