Some of you might remember this dress from a post Erin did on Dress A Day back in October. I loved the sweetheart neckline, the pleated cap sleeves, the softly pleated folds of the skirt etc, bought the pattern and decided to make a winter party dress out of it. I used a red silk bought for £7/m in a tiny fabric shop in Brick Lane that was literally stacked to the rafters with bolts of fabric. I’m not sure exactly what you would call it – dupion or silk taffeta – but it has a lot of body. Unfortunately there was probably too much body for the pleats, and I had to make a fairly dramatic net petticoat (following Gertie’s crinoline tutorial and adding more layers) to make the whole thing look like it was meant to stand out stiffly rather than drape softly.
Other changes: I redrafted the bodice to lower the bust darts and ended up having to make just one French dart, because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to lower two parallel French darts. I also lowered the neckline a bit, and I self-lined the whole bodice instead of using facings. That gives it a nice finish, but the bodice yoke facing was shaped to pull the neckline in a bit above the bust – you can see in the photos below that not having that means there are some problems with gaping. It’s not unwearable – I wore it to a party quite happily – but I’m seriously considering making a facing and hand stitching it to the lining and seams to try and bring the gape down. (Has anyone else ever done this? Any tips?) I inserted an invisible zip for the side fastening instead of poppers (so much safer). I was running out of time by the time I got to the hem so I machine-stitched folded ribbon over the raw edge then used fusible hem tape to secure the hem – not ideal, I know, but at least the body in the fabric means I more or less got away with it. I made a long sash instead of a belt. Oh yeah, and I accidentally cut the skirt on the crosswise grain, which definitely didn’t help with the drape!
Despite the reservations I’m quite proud of this dress – it’s the first time I’ve worked with silk, the first time I’ve redrafted a pattern, and I took a lot of care finishing the insides with French seams, seam binding, self-lining etc – but I definitely learned a lot of lessons for next time!
WOW! AMAZING job! It looks fantastic. I have yet to work with silk but you did an amazing job. Love the color too!
WOW! Stunning result.
That skirt is great! I love big skirts but the amount of petticoat required is almost ridiculous isn't it? One day I promise to make myself a silk dres…
I think your dress looks fabulous. I hope you have plenty of parties to wear it out to, as unfortunately its a bit dressy for the office.
I hope you find this article from Threads magazine useful. It's helped me with gaping necklines and revolutionised my life! I had a dress that I was forever nodding my head down to check I wasn't flashing my bra. I eased the neckline as suggested and now its tucked nicely against my skin.
I don't know how to do a link here but you can post this in the url bar
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/11421/hands-on-with-kleibacker-lessons-for-working-with-a-bias/page/all
lora
x
Wow, you did a great job! I love the way it FITS you.
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Beautiful dress, I love the colour.
It's so beautiful! You can tell you worked hard on it.
Well done! That is absolutely stunning! And congrats on successfully working with silk…it can be a finicky and difficult fabric to work with. It looks great on you as well!
That's a really super look for you. Nicely done!
Oh, I agree you can totally tell you worked hard on this one.
First time drafting AND with silk!??! You're AMAZING!
Thanks so much for the lovely comments everyone; it's so nice of you all to post them! And the Charles Kleibacker link was very helpful Lora, thank you!
Gorgeous dress! The colour is so beautiful.
absolutely beautiful and looks great on you!