Classic and cool

I think of this dress as my “indestructible” dress, as no matter how roughly it gets treated it washes up as fresh looking as the day it was made, about three or four years ago.  It must be the polyester crepe; crease resistant, stain resistant, pill resistant, tough and sturdy.  I used Burda 8511 and laid the front and back pieces down crosswise (hemline on selvedge) to get the border print right and with the back piece on a central fold to eliminate the centre back seam (which would have broken up the print).  I moved the invisible zipper to the left side seam and sewed the darts in the back much deeper and longer, to improve the somewhat sack-like appearance of the original pattern.  The hem is minimal, to get the dress length and placement of the border print just where I wanted it.
Obviously the indestructible dress has been quite useful in my wardrobe.  In its heyday it was deemed dressy enough to wear with heels to smart lunches and fashion parades, now it serves as an attractive daytime knockabout dress for hot weather.  Sometimes a perverse side of me wishes it would get shabby, or suddenly show a hole or a spot that won’t come out, then I could freely evict it with no guilty conscience.  But it keeps coming up from its wash; spotlessly white, crisp, all classic looking and glamourous, so back into the wardrobe it goes.
OK, you can tell I’m a little bored with it, but its just too damn useful to ever frivolously toss out.  And on a sweltering hot day it’s the one I sigh with relief when I spy it lurking amongst the other dresses in the wardrobe, “Oh, yes, the perfect dress” and grab it for yet again another day out…

Other details:
Sandals; Sportscraft, from David Jones