Aquarius

... the water bearer!
So this dress incorporates the design from page 56 of Pattern Magic 2, by Tomoko Nakamichi.  It is described as "a flip turn draped design tie appears from the slit in the front bodice for a complex and beautiful effect."
When I was playing with ideas for the Aquarius theme I had in my head; I imagined that front panel as a swimmer shooting out of the watery waves that are embroidered around the hem of the dress, up the front of the dress, and diving back into the water at the neckline.  Yeah, I do occasionally have an overactive imagination....  :)

To represent the Aquarian waves I embroidered a running stitch sine wave around the lower hem of the dress, and on the full-length front panel.  I originally had lazy-daisy water droplets going down the side of that front panel too... but the family veto-ed that one,  thought they were naff.  Hmf!  :D

I do like the visually peaceful hypnosis of sine waves.  Design-wise I've used them before.

And Aquarius is sometimes represented with a waves vaguely reminiscent of sine waves too.

The deep blue fabric is slightly rough and slightly crinkly cotton from Fabulous Fabrics.  I absolutely love this stuff.  It feels like it's going to be so comfy and easy to live it.  When I found it in the store I bought some in each of the four colours!  This blue is the first piece to go under the knife scissors  :)

I really like this longer length too.   I've already got a few short dresses and I wanted to go with something different this time.  I think it's quite elegant, and the proportion of skirt to bodice lend the dress a more graceful and refined silhouette.

Details:
Dress; partly self-drafted, based on the flip turn design from page 56 of Pattern Magic 2, by Tomoko Nakamichi, blue cotton
Sandals; la soffitada Gilde, from Zomp shoes

Construction blah blah blah...
I drafted the dress a little differently from that suggested in the book... in this case I gave the dress a long darted true A-line skirt with satisfyingly deep deep inseam pockets.  To fit the back skirt to my slight swayback, I sewed modified darts in the skirt, and folded pleats in the bodice at the same position.  This allows the bodice to blouse out nicely from out of a fitted waistline.  The front skirt and bodice have the same dart/pleat thing happening.  This is a waist-slimming trick  ;)

It is photographed here on Bessie who is bigger than I am, so it does blouse out more blousily on me.  The back of the dress is quite plain...

The dress is put on and taken off with a long invisible zip in the left side seam, and that long front panel is invisibly stitched down to the dress at the waistline.

The front neckline has to accommodate the flip turn tie, so I finished it with a narrow hem.  The back neckline and armscyes have interfaced facings.  The bodice slit has been finished like a letterbox opening, with a hemmed rectangle of facing fabric.  Like a welt-less and pocket-less welt pocket, if that makes any sense.  After wearing the dress for a few hours the pokey-out end ceased diving obediently into the water, and instead kept slipping sneakily back inside the dress, so I anchored it firmly in position on the inside along the sides of the letterbox opening.  It's not going anywhere now!