Silk satin + chiffon + lace

I dug into my box of "good" fabrics for this entry in the PR "match your shoes" contest.

Here are some of the notes from my PR entry:

Fabric Used:

I have had this fabric for a very long time. Possibly 8 - 10 years. I bought it on a holiday to Brisbane, when I stumbled across the Alla Moda Fabric Collection at the Emporium. I think I had gone to the Emporium for dance supplies for my daughter, as there is a Block dance shop there. The fabrics in the shop were glorious, but way over my usual fabric budget. In the end I splurged on a length of silk satin in a gorgeous dark olive green, and a matching length of silk chiffon and a piece of lace. Of course, I hardly bought enough to make anything, just 1.4 m of the fabrics and 0.5 m of the lace. I had envisioned a slip dress that could be worn alone, or worn with a sheer chiffon overlay. Then, I wanted to draft and perfect a pattern for this fabric, which I didn't get around to, so the fabric sat in my "good" box for a very long time. Now when I go back to the Bloch store, I don't even go into Alla Moda, being scared of the prices!

Only a few days after I bought the fabric, I saw some green "bedazzled" shoes in an op shop that matched my fabric purchases so well. A bargain at $8, though I did have to spend another $20 to get them re-heeled. I didn't notice that the bottom bits of the heels had fallen off when I bought them. The frenzy of op shopping!!

Finally I have made the dress for this competition. I didn't end up drafting my own pattern. There was so little fabric, that I thought before I start drafting, I might pull out an existing slip pattern to see if I even had enough fabric. In the end, I decided to use the existing pattern. It took a lot of pattern tetris and I had to pull in an extra knit fabric and elastics (that I had bought because they matched and I thought would make lovely underwear. Still to be sewn). 

Pattern:  Vogue 1160, a DKNY pattern, now out of print

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

Change to the slip pattern

1. Adding the lace. I cut the bodice cups using the selvedge of the satin fabric as the neckline, to minimise bulk. I sewed the darts in the cups, then lay the lace over the top. I didn't add any darts or shaping to the lace, and possibly I should have to get a better fit. I positioned the lace so that the scallops were mirrored on the left and right necklines, with the lace covering the fabric at the centre of the cups, but extending beyond the fabric at the top of the cups. I machine stitched the lace to the fabric, using a zig-zag stitch on the lace picot edge and a wavy stitch on the neckline selvedge. 

2. The pattern suggests sewing a hem edge on the top of the slip and then add on straps. I decided to create a bias binding finish that would extend into straps. Due to my fabric shortage, I had to piece a number of shorter lengths together, and then I managed to stretch out the back and it didn't look or fit so well. After much deliberation, I unpicked the binding along the back, then unpicked the entire back piece. I finished the top back edge with elastic (which colour matches perfectly!). This changed the height of the back piece, as I had to use a seam allowance that wasn't there, which is why I had to remove the entire back piece and sew it back in after the elastic was applied. I changed the positioning of the back straps so that the lace scallop would sit along the edge of the outer dress.

3. Hem line. I had enough of the satin fabric for a hi-low hem, but when I made the outer dress, I didn't, so I had to even out the back hem.

4. I hemmed the dress with a rolled hem on my overlocker.

Now the changes for the chiffon outer layer

5. I eliminated the sleeves.

6. I used an overlocker to construct the dress. Silk chiffon is delicate, frays and is sheer and I find that overlocking is the neatest method to sew even seams.

7. I finished the neck edge and armhole edges with a delicate knit fabric. The was mostly because I did not have enough of either the silk or chiffon to make facings or bindings. The knit bindings were much trickier than they sound. It was a stretchy, delicate knit and the chiffon was so light, that I didn't know how much to stretch the knit as I applied it. It is also one of those knits that curl like crazy. I basted the knit edges together and then basted them to the chiffon and when I was happy with it, I overlocked the seams.

8. I used knit fabric for the waistband. This was because I did not have enough chiffon.

9. Now that I was using knit fabric for some of the dress, I decided to add a panel of knit fabric to the side seams of the bodice. This way the dress could be pulled on and I would not have the trickiness of inserting a zip in extremely lightweight fabric.

10. I had to raise the back hem of the dress due to fabric shortages.

11. I finished the hem with a rolled edge. I had a bit of trouble with the rolled hem pulling away from the fabric in large sections. I googled and did not find much information to overcome this problem. In the end I put a mictrotex 60/8 needle in the overlocker and lengthened the stitch length (to more like 1.5, rolled hems are usually sewn with stitch length 1), to reduce the cutting effect of the overlocking on the fabric, particularly on the bias sections where the distance between fibres of the fabric is a bit longer.

Now that I look at the photos, I wish I had made an SBA to the dress bodice. I might even go back and fix this now, at the waistband seam, if I can.  Best do it whilst my overlocker is still threaded with matching thread.

Now for the twirl factor...