Rose Shoulder Dress

Pattern: Vogue's Misses' Dress V1162 from the Bellville Sassoon Collection

Fabric: Cotton/lycra blend in a deep purple

Cost: $50

Well, ladies, big shoulders are back in! And as someone with impossibly small ones, the shoulder pads are a welcome support for me. But this is not the beefed up t-shirt trend of the 80s--this one comes with elegant details on dresses and jackets. While we can't all rock the Lady Gaga look (nor would we want to) I find some of the new shapes to be a fun and refreshing change of scenery.

My new obsession with all things shoulder made me jump at the opportunity to make this dress from Vogue (pictured below). The pattern doesn't exactly call for shoulder pads (although they could definitely be inserted between the outer dress and the inner liner), but rather has an elegant shoulder detail that subtly uses this new trend. Think Beyonce's red carpet look and not Lady Gaga at a CD signing.

To make this look less formal and more wearable (who really goes to that many cocktail parties, anyway?) I made mine out of a cotton lycra blend in a deep purple, shortening it up a few notches, and ditching the rouching detail on the front. (I did, however, add some darts to balance the look out a little more on the bottom.)

Of course, being a fancy smansy Vogue pattern, the details have proven to be quite a lot of work. Cutting out the pattern's 20 pieces over five yards of fabric took me all of one evening, and hand sewing the sleeve details took 5 to 6 hours per sleeve. But the results were worth it. Check out the beginnings of the sleeve, below:

The final look, in full, is pictured below:

Update: A month after I made this dress I found its knock-off at H&M. I still like mine better.

You can check out my review of this pattern at PatternReview.com.

Check it out at BurdaStyle!