(yet another) Green Atonement Dress (SO PIC HEAVY!)

Like many other ladies who have seen the movie Atonement, I fell in love with the green dress Cecilia (Keira Knightley) wore. Unfortunately, I had no prom, wedding or other formal social events planned on my calendar, so I put off making the dress. Until now! My friend is getting married in August, and I needed a dress; I needed *this* dress.
(in case you're not familiar with it, here's the dress http://www.costumersguide.com/cr_atonement.shtml)

After reading through the various posts of other crafters' creations of the dress and checking out multiple reference sites, I sewed up my interpretation of the dress. The dress in the movie was EMERALD green - I wanted something subtler, and really liked the colour-tweak of the dress in a magazine photoshoot, so I looked for a moss-green fabric in a matte material. I found this great fine jersey fabric - the fact that it doesn't wrinkle sold me on it, as I was taking a red-eye to a wedding across the country and would have no time to go out and steam and iron it. The sash is bulkier, because of the fabric choice, but the dress still drapes and flows nicely, and I think it make the dress a bit more modern. It's definitely less fragile than the fabric they were working with in the movie!

I used (the out-of-print) Vogue 7387 as a base (going with skirt B, and after checking out the tops for the dress, made my own to fit my body). I decided to go with the 'B' skirt, that has a star-burst pattern at the top, so if I wear the dress without the sash there would still be a bit of skirt pizzaz. The top was finalized after several attempts (it was tricky balance between too loose and too tight). There are two wraps/sashes (one around the waits, and a really really long one around the hips) that button to the dress and can be removed; the additional 'false-sash-looped' piece was sewn to the skirt. I also made a shawl to go with it, which I'll wear at the wedding.

My friend, with a shiny new camera, came to visit, so just decided to be silly and go take photos. And I can't model. So please excuse the weird-lipped bored-dryad-poses and just admire the dress

The hip-sash should be lower in the back, so I'll make sure to wrap it lower it for the wedding (I couldn't see where it was during the shoot, and it's a little too high, should hug the rump really). The waist sash end also should tuck in a bit better, to hide its starting point (if only there were mirrors in the forest!)

I'll also be taping the top along the sides, just in case (it is a bit gappy in one photo, please excuse that, let me know if it needs to be flagged) Please also excuse my freakishly long toes :S