Appleton Formal with Vera Sleeves

I lengthened a Cashmerette Appleton dress and mixed it with the sleeves from Forget-me-not's Vera top.

Lengthened Appleton with Vera sleeves

I needed a long dress for a formal wedding reception—the same wedding that I made my sister's dress for. My other sister found a nice dress in a vintage store, so I looked there and found a dress option. It had hideous fringe on it that I could have taken off but I don't like that kind of work so I took it to a seamstress. She removed it for $120 and 2 weeks.  I also found a blingy jacket at the vintage shop. 

Fringeless vintage dress with and without blingy jacket

Original fringe.

My daughter ended up wearing this dress at the wedding and reception.

My daughter wearing fringeless vintage dress (with my son to her left and my niece and her husband to her right).

But then I was in Salvation Army and looked at dresses there. I found 2 possibilities. One was a knit gown with georgette overlay and flutter sleeves. I call it the funeral gown. The other was a knit that hit me at the ankles. I call it the one-dollar dress because that's all it cost, heh heh. Now the one-dollar dress is sleeveless. I either have to make sleeves or wear the jacket with it. I made test sleeves out of a knit mesh and propped them in to see how they would look.

​As an aside, I found this mesh in the chaos of Joann's going-out-of-business fake sale. (Everything marked up and only 10% off.) Still, I was happy to find what I was looking for at a brick-and-mortar the day I wanted it.

$1 dress with added mesh sleeves with and without blingy jacket

All along, I had been toying with the idea of making my own dress. I had bought McCall's 7047 during vacation and some black knit on another trip to Joann's during the fake sale. I also had enough black knit sequin fabric in my stash to make the sash. But I had so little time, I could not make a mockup to test the fit or the look of the dress's style on my body. I had looked at pictures on Pattern Review and the dresses there looked good, but I just lost confidence that this pattern would work out smoothly or look acceptable on me.

Considered but discarded option

​My niece had showed me photos of dresses other people were wearing and another aunt of hers was wearing a wrap. Then I had a brainstorm that if a wrap was acceptable, I had an Appleton pattern all fitted for me that might work. I'd just have to lengthen it and find a suitable fabric. I considered using the black knit I already had, but I was worried I would be just a little short.

All continual digs at Joann's aside, I headed there again looking for some other fabric for this formal Appleton. I really didn't see anything I liked but I got a polka-dot knit that could have worked. 

But then serendipity. I was searching for other local fabric stores (none) and found an old post from 2015 on Pattern Review. The writer mentioned a shop I used to go to (closed now) and referred to someone there who had sold fabric there. I was pretty sure she was a friend of mine, so I texted her to say I saw her referred to in that post. But get this: she still has loads of bolts left over from when she left that venture, and she invited me to come and shop her closet.

She had a lot of beautiful fabric, but none really suited me for this wedding. The closest thing was this black-and-white animal print with sparkles. What the hell, I gave it shot. It fits nicely. 

All views of the shiny zebra dress

Still, I'm not sure what I'll wear! Two more days to think about it. I'm not sure if this formal sparkly Appleton is too wild or whether it's appropriate or whether it's better than the other middling options I have. 

All of My Options

UPDATE: I chose to wear the shiny zebra dress. In retrospect, I can't believe I did; it's extremely outlandish! Even the funeral dress would have been more elegant. But I'm vain and I had to wear what I made. And a bonus is my daughter had a nice dress to wear.