My super sexy silk Papercut Saiph

Oh I was soooo excited to do this!  And whoooa I went out on a limb with creativity.  Seems to have come out ok despite that.

It was the perfect pattern to use for some silk - charmeuse I think?  It's dull on one side and shiny on the other, quite heavy, and it was the lining for my Victoria blazer, soooo at the end of it all I have a matching jacket!  I did have a few stray thoughts about using the dull side to make a nice contrast but I just stuck with shiny this time around.

Thanks Jennifer for an awesome lunchtime photo shoot!  We went urban chic: 

Yeah that's right...photo shoot at work and the rabble is getting restless!

Matches so well with my suede Victoria blazer

This was a size XXS.  I made some changes for summer -- omitted the facings and the sleeves.  Also although I adored working with this silk when I had been sewing suede, the truth is that it is shifty and it is shedding everywhere so I aimed for simple.  I wanted a dress with a nice finish and I still don't have a good idea how to make a good finish.  I just pinked the back seam and the skirt seam, and used french seams on the sides and shoulders.  My french seams got a bit big as they had to contain a bunch of shedded fibers.  I was worried that would make it smaller than I wanted but it is just barely perfect.  The hem length could be 2" longer so it would be more "dress" and less "shift" and I was rather sad to finish them hem as that made it even shorter...but it looks and feels awesome as it is so I don't mind in the end!

I considered bias binding the neck and sleeves but again the shedding silk made me reconsider, and I just rolled the edges in as I did for the back keyhole.  This came replete with some trials.  Maybe bias binding is better, because it's cut on the bias...right...the first armhole I folded-ironed-folded-ironed, and then pinned it down.  That was difficult and messy.  The second one I folded, ironed, and then did the second fold at the sewing machine.  The silk was easier to manipulate that way and I got a better result.  Still had to go back at some of the tight corners to fix them.  And it wasn't until I got to the neck that I remembered to grade my seams. Nonetheless, I naturally have a bunch of funky looking gathers at the front of the neck, hissss.  I will probably try to go back and loosen them up.  How to sew a rolled hem/neckline without making it look bad??

Finding a matching button was mainly luck.  I don't have a stash, since I'm transient, so my button stash consists of buttons from purchased items (all those spares.)  Luckily I had a nice green one, thanks Anthropologie!

At the end I went back and shortened the darts by about an inch.  No 1950s bullets for me (I don't think my boobs have ever sat that high!)  I'm considering shortening them some more.  I usually seem to have a slightly lower bust compared to darts in dresses, so that might be me.  And they are very pointy still...sigh.  

Vogue: V1344 Rebecca Taylor pattern

I ordered three Lisette patterns and basically worked my way through all of them as a learning exercise.  The only thing left to do is the Passport jacket, and I didn't feel quite ready to do a jacket yet. (It'll be next, after some long underwear for my boyfriend.)

I visited the States in June and randomly ordered some Vogue patterns ahead of time to ship to my parents house, along with some lovely blue raw silk on Etsy.  Not exactly sure what I'll do with that yet, but everything in New Zealand is expensive!  I hadn't discovered Mood fabrics yet...but unfortunately their shipping abroad is extortionate so I can only drool for now.

The first Vogue dress on my list is V1344, and in my mind I had it paired with a to-die-for Liberty silk.  In order to gear up for such a project I decided to use my second Spotlight purchase to make a wearable muslin.  My local fabric shop finally came through as well with some interesting green silk chiffon to use as lining.  In this project for the first time I attempted to line a dress and work with silk so those skills could prepare me for potentially doing an expensive version of this dress.

Hah!  Not sure that's happening, I'm still on the fence.

My first problem was getting used to the Vogue pattern style, which had dotted lines all over the place and seemed really confusing.  I traced the pattern, also a first, since I have no faith in my ability to figure out my size.  I'm not sure how tracing can be considered reliable...It seems like I'm now two degrees away from the original pattern (tracing it, cutting out the tracing). Naturally upon cutting it looked very small - I cut a size 10 because the Lisette patterns scared me with their unpredictable ease.  Going by my measurements I would have cut a 12.  (34, 27, 36)

I was soooooo right about the nastiness of working with this chiffon, not to mention my tracing skills leave a lot to be desired.  But my first complaint was with the Vogue instructions, who put a bunch of shoulder pleats in without explaining how they could possibly match up front and back.  And why put shoulder pleats in the lining?  The result of the lining pleats is that on one side of the neck, the lining is really visible because the pleat at the shoulder pulls it out.  I did each step pretty slowly and meticulously considering my terrible cutting job.  After dealing with the pleats when it came time to sew the lining into the bodice I discovered that my lining really didn't fit at all.  It was about 5 inches short of reaching the armholes.  So I basted big chunks on (it's lining, right, it doesn't matter what it looks like?) so that I could reach the armholes.

It wasn't too bad after that until I got to the mysterious task where Vogue vaguely says to put the elastic into the seam allowance at the waist.  Whaaaaat??  This is a 4 layer seam allowance!  And the elastic is not that small....So I did it, and sewed it shut, tried it on, and then sewed it again on the elastic at all the spots that had frayed open.  That seems like a really dumb way to put in a waist elastic.  If I did this dress again (note again: that is in doubt) I would increase that seam allowance to 1" so there would be room for this step.

In the end it did fit - in fact it was too big...and too late for me to overlap the front more so it totally fails a leaning over test.  If I do this pattern again I would probably cut the size 8, or cut a 10 but with bigger seam allowances (I'm not at the point where I'm ready to tackle too many more subtle changes than that.)

But considering the new patterns I've ordered: Deer and Doe, Sewaholics, Aimecommemarie, and By Hand London...there are a lot of things on my to-do list before I come back to this.  I probably won't use the nice Liberty silk for it either, as it's a fine georgette that won't look good unless it has a dark lining, and probably best in something with smoother lines.