May the 4th be with you: a Star Wars Dress

A couple of friends are I are going to a tea celebrating May the 4th be with you.  The tea is actually being held on May the 7th since that is a Saturday but is going to be Star Wars Themed.  The tearoom requested costumes or Star Wars themed outfits.  I don't have a Star Wars costume, but I though a Star Wars themed outfit could be fun. 

I knew I wanted a vintage style dress, but I also knew I was going to have a problem, I had minor abdominal surgery scheduled about 1.5 weeks before the tea.  I was still going to have stitches and probably swelling and tenderness the day of the tea.  So the dress needed to be at least somewhat adjustable.  I settled on this pattern, Butterick's Retro 1952 dress.  I figured if I switched out the snaps and buttons for ties, this dress, since it is a wrap dress should be adjustable! 

Now all I needed was fabric and I was ready to go!  I knew I wanted to go with a bad guy theme and I wanted the dress to be Black and Red.  So I went fabric shopping, and this is where I ran into a problem.  There was basically nothing available in black or red in the Star Wars fabrics!  The closest I could find was a white fabric with black and red print of Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma.  After spending way to long wandering around a fabric store, I decided this print could work if I overlaid it with a black sheer.  I then spent even more time wandering around testing various black fabrics for the overlay.  Since the print is already pretty dark, most of the sheers were too much and obliterated the detail in the print.  I finally found a fine net fabric in the with the tulle that fit the bill. I decided to layer the skirt, and have the net fabric stop shorter than the print to add some dimension. 

I will say this pattern is amazingly easy to put together, the only tricky part is the darts (there are 3 darts per side on the front panel!  I then added ties to allow the dress to wrap and be adjustable.  I used simple grossgrain ribbon for tying the front panel around to the back and sewed fancy ribbons and decorative buttons to close the front.  Overall I am pretty pleased with the dress.  I do plan on wearing a petticoat with it, but the one I ordered has not arrived yet! Here are some pictures of the full dress without the petticoat.  I am really looking forward to wearing this dress on Saturday!  Now to work on the accessories!