Author: Slmendes

My dear friend Nancy asked me if I would be willing to make her a dress to wear to a wedding she and her husband were going to in England. My reply was “Of course! I’d be delighted to!”. So the journey began!

She wanted to use her wedding gown to remake into a dress to wear to the wedding. How special is that! Her gown was made of silk duppioni and there was plenty of it to work with. The only issue was that it had never been cleaned since her wedding (at least 12 years ago, maybe more) and had been stored with some stains on it. Of course we would need to dye it as well, and I have never dared to dye fabric before, let alone a keepsake wedding gown, so after some thought and debate, we decided to scrap the upcycled wedding dress idea and purchase new fabric. This would save time in the long run, plus spare the wedding gown in case I were to completely mess it up (what me, mess up? Never!).

She loved the idea of wearing a girly dress; something fitted at the bodice and poufing out from the waist. We created a Pinterest board and shared ideas of wonderful dresses for inspiration.The dresses we swooned over were designer dresses in beautiful fabrics and feminine details such as pleats and tucks. And how wonderful it would be to also have pockets!

Here are some of our favorites:

So I searched and found a nice vintage pattern to use to make the dress. I found this Vogue pattern that was originally released in 1957 that she also loved:

It featured a wide, face flattering off shoulder v-neckline, a nipped in waist, and lovely pleated skirt. The dress did not, however, include instructions for a full lining, or side seam pockets, so I added those features on my own.

With the pattern decided, let the fabric shopping begin! This was the fun part, as there are so many lovely fabrics out there that would be wonderful for this dress.

After about 578 swatches ordered (slight exaggeration), she chose a beautiful gold floral silk jacquard by designer Carolina Herrera purchased from Mood Fabrics website:

This fabric is amazingly beautiful! The gold really shimmers and catches the light as it moves, and the background color changes from a brown, to a purply-taupe, to a navy blue.

Once we had the main fabric, we headed out to Mill End Store in Milwaukie, Oregon to find a nice lining material. Together we chose a lovely navy silk twill to line the dress in. Later, as I was making the dress and installing the lining, I told her I almost like the lining as much as I like the dress! It really turned out beautifully and looked so luxurious.

So, I hunkered down and got to making the fitting muslin toile for her. The fitting went well and she was already happy with the shape and style of the dress so far:

As for the pattern fit, the list of changes I was to make were as follows:

• no sleeve
• take up at the shoulders
• take in the bodice at the princess seam along bust line
• take in at side seam of bodice
• shorten entire hem length by 6″

And design additions and changes to the pattern included:

• cut the center front panel out of one piece, eliminating the center front seam so not to “interrupt” the beautiful pattern on the fabric
• add side seam pockets
• add full lining
• take center back zipper all the way up to the top of the dress (the zip was originally designed to be centered within the dress for some reason)
• add lingerie hooks at shoulder to secure bra straps

After the muslin fitting, I got back to my sewing table, took apart the muslin dress, and transferred the changes to the original dress pattern pieces as needed and made a new center front pattern piece with no center seam. Then I got to cutting the dress out of the fabric.

Sewing up the dress the second time around in the fashion fabric did go much faster than the first time out of the muslin, just because I knew what to expect when sewing, and had basically done it all before.

This time, I made the lines and sewing markings for all of the pleats on the outside, the right side, of the fabric with chalked tracing paper so that is was much easier to find them when it was time to fold and sew the pleats down.

Here is a photo of one of the pleats folded from both sides into the seam, basted down, then pressed:

Extending the zipper all the way to the top of the back of the dress made sense and was easy to change on the pattern. Here, I am hand basting in the zip in to the center back seam, using a bright teal silk thread, before I sew it in on the machine:

Once I had the dress sewn up (for the most part), I scheduled another fitting with my friend. I wanted to make sure that everything was going well before I cut, sewed together and installed the lining.

Everything looked great and fit well, needing only a few tweaks to fit around the bodice and the decision to add the yoke piece to the neckline:

It was time to cut the lovely silk lining!

I used the same pattern pieces as the dress, sewed it together in the same manner (minus the pockets), and sewed it to the neckline and armholes of the dress, under stitching as far as possible to keep the lining to the underside of the neck and arm openings.

Finally, after hours of fitting, cutting, sewing, pressing and steaming, the dress was complete! I am very happy with the result of the dress,

and Nancy was just delighted to wear it to the wedding in England:

Doesn’t she look fancy and marvelous wearing her new custom made silk frock, complete with wonderful gold shoes and a great feathery fascinator? I think so!

I busted out this dress, hopefully just in time to make the deadline for the Patternreview Colorblock Contest! If not, no biggie, just a prize gift certificate to my favorite online fabric store, Mood.

There were a bunch of wonderful entries, so I might have come in about 5th place, maybe, with this little dress:

I saw this dress pattern, Burda 6851:

on the Simplicity.com website, and thought it was perfect for a color blocked project (I believe my first!), and something I could easily interpret for my needs.

Once I started researching the pattern online (Google, Yahoo Images), with only one other pattern review on Patternreview.com, I found that someone pinned on Pinterest this pattern as an, um, EXACT copy of a Donna Karan dress from her Fall 2015 line, so of course I was even more excited to make this dress!

This dress was a pretty simple sew. The hardest part was adding the zipper, which was instructed as an invisible zipper, but I chose a semi-exposed, plastic zipper with black trimmed zipper teeth, a black zipper pull, and a clear white plastic zipper tape, as my seemingly cool zipper alternative:

Well, my cool zipper idea kind of backfired because the zipper is a tad too heavy and stiff for the ponte knit weight, and the ends of the zipper are super plastic-y and won’t behave with the top and bottom seams, thus leaving a bumpy, lumpy and scratchy interior of the zip area. Not great, but a good effort.

Had I had the time, and sewing buddy to help, or an exact clone of myself to come in handy, I would have “pinched out” at the mid back of this dress to avoid that nasty bubble at the back. I also would have adjusted the underarm weirdness at the dolman sleeve “meeting”:

As well as lost the trying-too-hard “deer in headlights” look on my face. Really Steph?

Overall, it was a great dress to sew up in a few days. I may sew it again, I may not, but I really should be making my own patterns at this point, and making them unique.

Oh well! I enjoy letting others do the pattern making (thank you Burda!), and doing the fabric and construction stuff for me, thus my love affair with commercial patterns!

Tootles for now and see you soon!

Happy Holidays!

I drafted and sewed up this loose fitting draped back dress using the guidance of this blogger Moldesdicasmoda:

It was a fairly simple dress to sew, with just a front, back and back band piece to make.

I lowered the front neckline, but I think I took a little too much off as it sits pretty low in front:

I added a little stripy bralette from Free People underneath the top for interest under the drape:

This is a super comfortable dress to wear as it is an essentially shapeless fit.

I am quite happy with it overall, and it was a lot of fun to wear to a fashion show in town!

I finished this dress just in time to wear to a local fashion show tonight. I love how easy and chic it is, and was a snap to make.

I used Vogue 8915 pattern to make this dress. This is the third time I have made this pattern, and most likely not the last time.

I used this lovely silk charmeuse in a geometric print that I had in my fabric stash from about 4 years ago, purchased at Josephine’s Dry Goods in Portland, OR. I love this print because it is different and artsy without being too crazy. I originally bought it for another Vogue pattern, but decided to not make that one as it is a little dated.

It was a fast and easy pattern to cut out, just a front and back cut on the fold, the sash, and the pockets (I did not do pockets this time).

This is my pattern layout:

I, of course, have pinned some inspiration dresses on Pinterest for dresses like this:

I am excited to slip in this dress and wear it out, hopefully get some good photos of me in it, and maybe a client or two out of it (a sewing client, mind you!).

Cheers!

I just finished this lovely silk crepe de chine tunic blouse in a beautiful shade of blue:

This was not the fastest thing I have sewn, as I took my time making couture seams and hand sewn finishes, even self-fabric covered buttons. This fabric is so lovely to wear, but quite finicky, delicate and slippery to manage and to sew, that I had to take my time for each section of the construction process.

I used New Look 6374 pattern, view A to make this top:

I have seen this style of top all over the place in stores, in magazines, on people, so I have gathered up a few images of the look I was going for with this top:

I look forward to wearing this new silk top, and most likely, I will be making it up again in other colors soon. Exciting!