Salvage Job - Lyraine Dress in Dove Grey

Ella modelling the salvaged Lyraine dress (more in IG album)

Last month, Ella was photographed in a dress I call the Lyraine Dress. The dress is a dove-grey floral, strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline — a dress that I managed to salvage from (semi-)ruin. Posted briefly about it on Instagram, and was intending to post more about it, but other things got the better of me.

So, I had a little accident with the Lyraine Dress — a lovely strapless dress I've had since early 2014. Not so "little" an accident, since the bodice was ruined. (°ㅂ°╬) It was very upsetting, as my Uni. friend made the dress for me in her spare time. The dress (named after her IG moniker) was a prototype, but it was a handmade gift, and she didn't have a lot of spare time. So, I was annoyed with myself for being so careless.

She used to make clothes (human-sized ones) as a hobby, and she'd make some for an annual show at her former workplace (for fun and for the charity auction). She too did it to stay sane in her (then) profession. It was one of the first topics over which we clicked, when we first met. At the time, my Blythe journey had only just begun, and my craft exploits were heavily skewed towards cross-stitch, simple pouches and embroidering embellishments; I had barely been able to make a decent simple A-line dress then.

A post shared by @lyraine on Jan 19, 2014 at 9:35am PST

The original dress had a strapless bodice with a straight neckline, in a plum fabric (lined with cream crepe), and a circle skirt in a lovely dove-grey floral fabric. The skirt was ruched/gathered at random spots, giving the skirt some texture and volume. She also included a soft underskirt in pale pink organza, edged with lace. Although the plum fabric of the bodice and the lace were not as fine or delicate as the grey floral fabric, the dress was pretty.

A post shared by @yotsub4 on Jan 28, 2014 at 4:03am PST

(Back then, I had a picture of Jardin du Maman in the dress, but I can't find it. Darn. A pity because the colours of the dress suited Jardin's honey brown locks and dark purple eyes. My friend had only 1 Blythe doll, a factory doll with blue hair which she had borrowed for the sole purpose of experimenting with making Blythe outfits.)
Found the picture of Le Jardin du Maman in the dress! Totally missed it when I trawled through my Instagram. Anyway, can't really see it in my awful picture (iPhone 4S and low light), but the plum bodice and floral pattern really did complement her honey locks and dark purple eyes.

Fixing the bodice of the Lyraine dress (more in IG album)

To save the dress, I had to let down the ruched/gathered parts of the skirt, and use the excess fabric at the hem to recreate the bodice. I actually had enough excess to make the bodice twice, so I was a little relieved. I could afford to mess up the first one (which I did).

I hate unpicking stitches the most, and personally prefer starting over again rather than unpick stitches. But if it has to be done, I'll do it. Unpicked the original bodice and carefully retraced the pattern onto paper, which I then cut out to work off. To get the bodice right, I had to unpick and re-stitch the bodice, panel by panel, three darn times. Thank heavens Blythe are small. I finally got it mostly right just as I was at my limit with the unpick-and-restitch routine. By the time I was done with the bodice, I was not keen to do any more unpicking, adjusting and restitching, so I made another lining from scratch, with lightweight silk (in light grey). Slippery, flimsy fabric to work with, but gives a nice finish.

Also decided to make it a sweetheart neckline instead of a simple straight one. So I used a bit of thread to gather the middle of the neckline.

Loop closures for the back (more in IG album)

The original bodice was secured by a snap button and 2 loop closures using 4mm buttons. But in my salvage job, I changed the closures to loop closures with little pearl-like beads (plastic). Actually, I had no choice because I made a mistake in my adjustments and didn't leave enough space to stitch a snap button. In any event, it did cross my mind that loop closures may be more elegant and form-fitting, so I went with that.

Ella modelling the salvaged Lyraine dress (more in IG album)

Was relieved that the dress was salvaged. I liked the style and the lovely fabric, so I didn't want the dress to go to waste. Am quite happy with the end result.... It is like the original and yet not like....

But I admit that I screwed up a little with the adjustments because the bodice is tight — too tight for the Takara Neo Blythe body. But it fits the Neemo body...just.... Anyway, Ella has nice curves in all the right places (uh-hm)...and the top seems to hug her nicely...so.... (･ω<)～☆