The Delicious dress: deliciously slow

Thank you to a dear reader for a great suggestion: Vogue V8578. This is quite glam and could be extended to maxi length. 

The one to try next:

Vogue 8578

In the meantime we chip away at the Hot Patterns Deco Vibe Delicious dress, which is so easy to make...unless you make it extra hard. The usual: a couple of seams, no zip, no buttons, all agony. So far, I have interlined all the pieces, pressed them nicely, and begun to assemble the dress. It isn't anywhere near ready to photograph but I include a photo anyway, so you can see the idea.

A pile of underlined pieces

Pinned together before sewing

Some initial learning: 

Work area: This is fairly self-evident but you need a big work surface to cut out the pieces for the maxi dress. 

Max-imize: I have the sense that the maxi dress works better aesthetically than the short dress. The long length gives somewhere for all that drape to go.

Basting: I basted all the underlining pieces to the fashion fabric pieces along the grainline. I've also basted the seams in place in areas where pieces were likely to slip. It's a bit of work but results seem good.

Pressing: The shoulder seams are curved. I pressed the seams flat after sewing, then pressed them open over a tailor's ham (with a bit of card underneath to prevent leaving a line), then pressed them on the right side, again over the tailor's ham and covered with silk organza. 

Sleeve gathering: I am now trying to figure out the ruched sleeves. The pattern suggests that you slit the sleeve opening, and then roll a narrow hem while inserting a bit of narrow elastic in the slit hem. I think this could work, but I am not sure I like this method. 

I took a break to walk around in downtown Manhattan Beach, and I passed a shop window where I saw with a beautiful spring dress, pale green with white flowers. When I looked closely I noticed that the white flowers were embroidered with beads. What a lovely idea. I might try adding a beaded detail to the hems of this dress if I need to weight it toward the hem. Do, and overdo, in other words.

Some segments now partly basted, partly pinned

(It's not as bad as it looks)

More to follow...

In for a penny, in for a pound

Thank you, dear friends at PatternReview, for your advice on how to make myself look like this, except with more color:

The Dries van Noten dress of dreams 

(Oh come on Dries, a little peachy blush couldn't hurt)

I started making this dress exuberantly enough, tracing and then cutting out a muslin of the HotPatterns Deco Vibe Delicious Dress.  

"This dress isn't all that fitted," I said to myself, "I'll use my bust size." Wrong assumption, as it turned out. The muslin was a vast poof from the waist down. 

I've taken some advice from many people at PatternReview. Rather than add darts or try to shape the seams,  I traced the pattern in a smaller size from the waist down. 

I gave up on making another muslin, as the fabric was just too stiff. I rather bravely decided to skip making a second muslin and instead pin fit the Swedish tracing paper. The new size seemed to fit well enough, and was much sleeker.

Scissors in hand I launched into a long piece of deep blue silk. I was too terrified to cut into the Pucci fabric in my stash, but I needed to try this HotPatterns dress in very, extremely drapey fabric to discover whether this pattern would ever work. I was prepared to sacrifice this blue silk crepe de chine that I bought a few weeks ago on sale.

 I found that the blue silk was rawwther sheer

(My hand, visible through the silk)

I contemplated how to solve the sheerness problem. Wear a slip? Or underline? This dress is still an experiment, but it's getting more expensive by the minute. So far, I've bought a pattern for $18.95, plus shipping, and then $24 of silk and $5 of thread. I've made one muslin and traced this pattern twice using up practically an entire roll of $12 Swedish tracing paper. I've already spent $65 on a pattern I'm none too sure will work. 

But hey, why not go whole hog? I cut out the blue silk, which has great drape, although it was just too thin for a dress. I decided on interlining, thus my next step in crafting this utterly unproven HotPatterns design was to make another purchase: this time gossamer silk underlining, four yards at $12 a yard. I bought this silk at my local fabric shop, where the girl behind the counter had no idea what it was. 

"What kind of silk is this?" I asked. "Gold," she answered. We held up a length of the blue crepe de chine with this gold silk behind it. The two fabrics married as though draping a Grecian goddess.

Photos can't describe the delicacy of this gold silk,

whatever it is (habotai?)

This gold silk was so light that it was difficult to cut without pinning it to a surface. I didn't have a big enough piece of cardboard, and feeling impatient, I pinned it to my Persian carpet. Not at all the recommended method, but it worked a trick.

Silk pinned to the carpet

Underlining sewn in place, before pressing

The underlined silk panels have the most astonishing lava-like drape. Hopefully drapiness will be the trick that transforms the Delicious Dress experiment from maternity dress to goddess-wear. I'll let you know in a few days. I've got yards more basting to do.

In the meantime I'm still contemplating the Pucci fabric in my stash. I've ordered two patterns from Marfy. Maybe this fabric wants to be a tunic? Or an asymmetrical dress? 

The butterfly is missing a wing

Does it work? I think I love it.

A great square pleated neckline

Sometimes there are just too, too many options out there.

HotPatterns Deco Vibe Delicious Dress: Planning

Have you ever been faced with a fabric so beautiful that it paralyzes you with indecision? 

I am dreaming of an evening gown made in this astonishing Emilio Pucci fabric. Or is it a caftan? Or a daytime dress? Not sure, but I do think it can work a a maxi dress worn ankle length, with elegant flat sandals. With this giant print, you need to show your ankles to break things up a bit.

Emilio Pucci silk print

Possibly with these strappy sandals

Alexander McQueen at Net-a-Porter for (cough) $685

Something perfect would be to add bands with a small-scale toning print, but sadly I didn't find one. See what I mean with the effect on this Pucci Alessandro dress. It could totally work to create a dress with just the top part made in the big pattern, like this Missoni kimono dress. 

I could also use black banding on the sleeves and black edging around the neckline to break up the print. 

But please write in your comments. Is this print just too much of a good thing? The muslin is cut out - with the dress below in mind - I'll post it later this week.

The dress in question

(First on the right)

A maxi in every way, from HotPatterns