Fancy Dress Stitching Time

Fancy dress and fun!  My daughter's dear friend was married this past weekend and she needed a new dress.  The dress that had been ordered wasn't quite up to the job, so I had the pleasure of trying to make a dress, inspired by the purchased dress.

When making your own dress, you get the pleasure of choosing what types of fabrics you would like to use.  I was able to find a lovely shade of purple (wedding colour) in silk crepe de chine.  I confess, I did not like working with that slippery silk.  I usually like to work with silk, but this was not one of those times. :)  I was fortunate to find a lovely black, embroidered lace fabric that was well weighted with the boarder design.  It gave the lace fabric a lovely, lovely drape. 

When finished, it was as if I made this dress 4 times. First there was the mock up, then there were the three layers.  You have the full lining, silk fabric and lace fabric, which all needed to be hemmed, except the mock up.

I stretched myself with learning some new skills.  I have made two corsets in the past, but this was my first corselette.  I made sure to study up on it as much as I could, as well as getting great advice from Dawn Luckham on the boning for the corselette.    I also used Dawn's wonderful tutorial on how to cut and tip boning.  The boning I have used in the past I just measured and purchased already cut and tipped bones.  Not knowing what this project was going to be like, I needed to have the freedom to make bones as needed and time was short, so learning to do my own was great!

The corselette was made from cotton batiste and cotton/poly drill.  The batiste was closest to the body and the drill was the outer layer.  By lining the corselette, I was able to make boning channels by stitching the two layers together, where needed.  You can see my chalk lines drawn all over the corselette as well as the waist stay pinned.  The back closure is a separating zipper, which was cut down to size, when all was done.

I quickly threw the dress onto the dress form, but it was not set up for Merissa's measurements, so the dress does not sit properly on it, but that's OK.  I was trying to get placement for the straps I was putting on.  I decided to quickly take a couple of pictures.  This was after a very long night of sewing, so the display is not very good...sorry about that.

From this picture you get a good idea of the colours of the fabric.

Here is a picture of Merissa in her new dress, at the wedding.  Unfortunately, you can't see the colours of the dress well, but you get an idea of the fit and more importantly, you see Merissa's wonderful expression, which truly gives a glimps into her beauty. :)

Carol