The first post of 2017 is actually a past make. I had made this dress in October 2015, and since it was much too big for me now, as I've reduced, I decided to take it in. And as it's finally sunny here, me and my Husband could take some decent photos.
This was my first "big" project: first time with silk, first time with evening clothes, first time with two fabrics treated as one, finally-first time with overcasting by hand all the seam allowances.
Big bow to my Husband for taking the photos and for helping (as always) with fitting and hemming!
It is fully backed with a medium-weight cotton canvas in dark green, for three reasons:
-to give the dress more body and make it "fall heavier"
-to reduce the crazy-wrinkling properties of dupioni (it crinkles from even looking at it)
-to have something to hand sew to without marking the outside fabric.
As for the fit, I had to make regular alterations, such as FBA, but I had to go much further with back adjustments than I usually do; I have a short and narrow back and I ended up taking out 3,5(!) inches of back width and 2,5 of back lenght in this pattern.
I lenghtened the dress by an inch.The dress fastens with my favourite lapped zipper, finished off with a tiny snap and the neck.
The dress took about 100 hours to make, and most of the time was spent basting the seams and hand-overcasting the seam allowances. On the bright side, it was such a training that my hand sewing skills grew significantly.
Some details
Dupioni is a wonderful silk to start sewing with-it's stable, doesn't shift and takes the corrections gracefully.
Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day! :-)
