A Diamond Dress for Chicago

For day two of our Chicago trip, shopping at the Magnificent Mile and at the Randolph Antique market was in order. For my shopping outfit, I did not wear a suit but chose a navy dress in wool which was a 1940 Lutterloh pattern. I loved the look of this dress because of the diamond in the middle of the bodice holding the gathers and pleats of the bodice together. the sleeve was also rather interesting too I thought. Below, the original illustration.

For my version of the dress, I omitted the detailing on the diamonds and left off the diamonds on the skirt all together. Mine buttons down the back with brown buttons matching the decorative belt buckle. For the center front diamond, I hand stitched it to the rest of the bodice and then prick stitched it for strength and to add a little texture. I prick stitched the faced sleeve edge too.

To accessorize this outfit, I wanted to keep the accessories rather simple so I chose my black felt hat, simple necklace and copper screw back earrings in a leave shape for fall. I chose T- strapped pumps to round out the outfit.

Overall, this dress was pretty easy to make after I figured out what order I wanted to assemble the bodice. For the skirt, I kept it really simple and used the skirt pattern from this dress which you can see here.  Personally, I really love this dress! Oh and the backdrop (silly me, how could I not mention that?) The hotel lobby was gorgeous and I could not resist getting a picture with one of the pillars and the staircase. There was such a luxurious vintage feel that I was just attracted to.