“I put it on and I was like, yes!” – Alexa Chung

In March, I fell hard for a dress I saw in a photo: Alexa Chung in a black lace mini with a cape-like drape on her way to a Givenchy show at Paris Fashion Week. Considering her Givenchy Slice Mini Ruffled Dress in Black Lace retailed for a whopping $17,200 CAD, I sighed my little sigh. Then, I saved the photograph of Alexa in her mini to my file of “Sewing Crushes,” something I’d try to make for myself when I had the chance.

I guess I wasn’t the only one who was in love with the look, because, come summer, a slew of sewists on Instagram, Suzy Sankey, for example, started making their own versions of the now-iconic look. Next thing I knew, SisterMagPatterns published a full pattern, aptly named the Givy dress, and I immediately grabbed the pdf. Before I’d even printed the pattern or purchased my fabrics, the miraculous Melissa @neocraftsical had made three versions of the Givy in three different fabrics to show how incredibly versatile the look can be.

Inspired, I not only bought myself a rose-patterned lace with a swishy lining for my upcoming wedding anniversary dinner date, I grabbed a cotton eyelet with a cotton lining for our planned day-date at the cinema. Wedding anniversary weekend sorted.

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ET VOILA! A TALE OF TWO GIVYS

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Basic Alterations to the Pattern

Length

I lengthened the whole thing! I don’t really like mini-dresses. So, while I wanted the Alexa-in-Givenchy look, I went for what turned out to be a Degas-ballerina-vibe, length-wise. To do this, I cut the front and back bodice and lining pieces out along the largest size at the hem, which gave me approximately 3 inches additional length. Next, I added appromixately 2.5-3 inches to the length of the ruffle pieces.

Pocket Size & PLacement

I used my own go-to self-drafted pocket pattern, because it’s larger, and raised the pocket location. Since I’d added so much length to my dress, I knew my big pockets weren’t going to be reachable in the ruffle section, alone. So, I set the pockets in along the side seams of the bodice as well as along the ruffle. I believe I started at about 3-4 inches above where the bodice & ruffle meet. To accommodate this change, during construction, before attaching the bodice to the lining, I only joined my bodice pieces about half-way down at the side seams. I then attached my ruffle pieces to the front and back bodice pieces separately before adding the pockets and finishing the remainder of the side-seams.

FRONT BODICE NECKLINE TRIMMING

I’d heard that some people find the neckline of the front bodice of the pattern gapes a little bit. I’m not sure this would have been the case for me. However, I wanted a sure win the first time around, so I followed Melissa @neocraftsical’s advice to take in the front bodice by about a finger’s width along the centre fold-line. I drew a vertical line on a fresh piece of tracing paper. I lined the bodice pattern piece up along this line via the fold-line. Then, using a pivot point midway down my vertical line, I angled the top of the bodice piece forward across the straight line by about a finger’s width. On my tracing paper, I then drew a horizontal line from my vertical line to the top of the shoulder. Similarly I extended the curve from the lower hem to the vertical line. Above, I’ve attached a fresh drawing similar to the one Melissa shared with me in order to show you how it’s done. I then made the same alteration with the front lining piece.

OMITTING THE ZIPPER

I did not bother with the zipper in the pattern. The dress fits just fine over my head without the addition of the closure.

Notes & TIPS

Fair warning, this particular pattern, printed, appears to include both seam allowance and stitch lines. Make sure you cut your pattern along the seam allowance, not the stitch lines!

A lot of the instructions take place in the online links/tutorials. The printed pattern has a nice qr code so you can easily scan with your phone. The videos themselves are completely thorough and specific to the Givy pattern in particular. So, Bravo.

I may be wrong, but I don’t think the strap pattern piece is quite the same size/shape as the measurements they recommend in the instructions? I ended up cutting fresh strap and lining pieces according to directions printed in the step-by-step instructions.

When gathering your ruffles, it’s a good idea to use a different coloured thread for your basting stitches, so it’s easy to see.

Also, I gathered my ruffles in four quadrants or sections, with a slight overlap, and then marked my bodice pieces in four quadrants or sections along the bodice hem to make it easier to piece together evenly.

COST

Givenchy Dress: $17,200.00 + HST = $19,436.00 CAD
versus
TWO Givy Dresses: $214 + HST = $241.82 CAD

SisterMag Givy Dress Pattern: $21
Printing from Spool & Spindle: $18
Fabric from Fabric Town 2858 Danforth, Toronto
4 Yards Poly Lace: $80
2 Yards Poly Lining: $20
4 Yards Cotton Eyelet: $65
2 Yards Cotton Lining: $10
Subtotal: $214
[Not including labour, thread, notions, all on hand]
HST: $27.82
Total: $241.82
Two dresses for 1.2% cost of the couture piece!

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“I put them on, and I was like, Yes! Yes!” – R.S.C.