This summer’s cocktail dress

Finally decided to post a picture of my new cocktail dress made quite recently.
I love this pattern from Anna Sui for Vogue; I think the ruffles at the back are gorgeous and so feminine.  Sometimes the back of an outfit can be a letdown from the excitement of the front, but this dress is not of that category, in my humble opinion (IMHO, finally worked out this previously baffling acronym the other day!)
I chose this pattern partly because I loved it, also because I wanted the challenge that the pattern cover promised.  I used silk crepe de chine; why oh why do I continue to torture myself with this crazy, slippery, flighty fabric with its willful, wayward mind all of its own?!  Don’t answer that.  Of course I know that it is the challenge that draws me; also silk is truly the king of evening fabrics for both looks and the luxurious feel of it, peerless IMHO (ok, I’ll stop that now).  And actually I’m overdramatising the difficulty factor as usual, I had only a few torturous moments; all to do with the set-in godet in the skirt front.  This whimsical designer touch had to be unpicked and redone once because the fabric kept developing strange inexplicable bumps, probably due to the bias seaming.  Eventually I went with carefully hand basting the seams, and topstitching at a snail’s pace to achieve a smooth enough finish for my satisfaction… Very challenging but not hair-pullingly so.  I am pretty darn proud of the final look.
I also included a photo of my usual method of cutting silk fabric pieces… I cut out the paper pieces, then use my rotary cutter on the fabric.  I hold down the fabric flat with the big see-through ruler seen in the picture (it probably has some proper name).  I use this method because it avoids pins in the fabric, the fabric is held down flat and undisturbed by pin/scissor pulling and tugging which may cause shifting and bunching, and the rotary cutter gives a nice clean cut edge.  I carefully add pattern markings after cutting.  I’d be interested in how other seamstresses handle the slipperiness of silk.
For the shoulder straps I used a chocolate brown sequinned ribbon, and all the edgestitching and topstitching was done in a deep chocolate brown.  I love this contrast, and how it goes with my Icelandic shoes!

Other details:
Dress; Vogue 1105, cream silk crepe de chine
Shoes; KronKron of Iceland, bought online
Stole; d/lux, from Calico and Ivy
Bag; Accessorize, gift from my children
Necklace; gift from my husband