New Penzance Island - Style 2475

Here’s a little tid bit about me. I love Wes Anderson. I love his movies and TV commercials. I could watch The Darjeeling Limited over and over and when I'm in a sooky mood, Fantastic Mr Fox cheers me up. But none of his movies have inspired me fashion wise since The Royal Tenenbaums until Moonlight kingdom

Suzy Bishop – the young heroine of the movie has a pretty enviable set of outfits. The wardrobe was put together by Kasia Walicka Maimone who was interviewed in the Lula Issue 16 (where she talked about working with Wes and making the costumes for the movie)

Also did I mention the whole movie is set in the 60s? (whoo hoo!)

So of course I couldn't help myself but sew up my own version of Suzy’s yellow mini dress. She wears this at the end of the movie while Sam paints and her brothers listen their record. Suzy's appears to be made in yellow broderie anglaise

There are a lot of interpretations of Suzy’s dresses out there including lots for halloween, but this my one. I used Style 2475 for the dress and swapped the stand-up collar for a peter pan style one which I drafted. The collar at the back is too short so there is a bit of a weird gap between the end of the collar and the zipper. I won’t show you - it’s hideous the way I tried to fix it…

 I also borrowed the cuffs from another pattern, but they could be very easily drafted up as well. (Potential future post?)

The fabric is a buttery soft yellow linen from ‘the Fabric shop’ in Surry Hills. It’s very see through so I have to wear a slip underneath. I tried to find a yellow lace, but the closest I came was white lace and a box of yellow Dylon

Also, because I’m not very smart sometimes, I forgot to add more allowance to the hips in this pattern. So it ended up being very tight and I couldn't include pockets into the seam lines as intended. (I've written myself a little note for next time and popped it in the envelope)

Over all it’s a very sweet little dress!

Are you a Wes Anderson fan? Do you have any favourite movies that inspire you to sew?

Xoxo Cat