I’ve made this new dress! every year my dear friends give me a Fabulous Fabrics voucher for my birthday… it’s taken me a little while but I finally got around to spending it and making my birthday dress!
Pattern; Vogue 1351, this is my third version of this pattern, my first one is here and my second here. This time I cut the skirt a bit more flared and actually it was going to be a lot longer to start with too, it was going to be a midi-ankle length dress, but when I tried it on for hemming I decided this particular small-scale floral was not right for a midi-length. It felt like a big walking cliche, to be honest, as if it was the “before” dress in an op-shop refashion challenge, and I was about to lop a foot off the bottom and go “TA DA!!” LOOK HOW AMAZING IS THIS REFASHION GUYS!!! FRUMP TO FAB IN JUST FIVE MINUTES!!!
Actually, I think the longer the length of a dress, the bigger the scale and more overblown the print needs to be… and a smaller scale print really looks best in a shorter dress. Also Craig gave a big thumbs up to the shorter length, although that is pretty much ALWAYS his response, so much so that I don’t know why I bother asking… Anyway, I preferred the shorter length too, which I should say is of course the “right” length!
Fabric; floral chiffon, lined with a warm, peachy/pale-pink crepe, both from Fabulous Fabrics. I’d tried a few different colours underneath the floral – because it is completely sheer the colour of the lining made a huge difference; white, ivory, and even cream were all too “cold”… I almost went for pale yellow which was quite warm and nice but in the end I settled on this lovely pale peachy-pink. Pink gave an rosy warm glowing light to it; just exactly what I want for winter 🙂 I know a chiffon dress seems a strange thing to make for winter, but this dark rich floral just seemed to my mind to be very right for the season, and is what I want to wear right now.
I stitched French seams on all areas of the chiffon, and the seam allowances of the pink crepe lining are overlocked to finish…
triple-stitched baby-hems for both the shell and the lining… as described in my tutorial here
… the only difficult bit I had was putting the pale pink invisible zip into the chiffon. It is tissue thin, and so wouldn’t be able to provide any support for the zip, so I applied thin strips of iron-on interfacing along the stitching lines of the zip, extending it by about an inch either end and was super careful when stitching.
I thought I’d show my lining slip-stitched to the zip tape inside… I always stay-stitch a three-sided “box” at the lower edge of the seam where it will be sewn to the lower edge of the zip, snip into the corners, press the seam allowances under, and stitch along the stitches… this is something the patterns NEVER tell you, but I think they really should, because it’s so much better. The lining sits a lot flatter and smoother, the stay-stitching gives a little bit of reinforcement to the area, and the squared-off slit really does make a visible difference to how invisibly the zip seam appears in the finished garment, especially in a very thin fabric like this. Haha, I know that “visible difference to how invisibly etc” sounds like an oxymoron, but you know what I mean!
I wore it for the first time today! along with my scarlet Miette cardigan, to show it to my lovely girlfriends who had given me the voucher… 🙂
Details:
Dress; Vogue 1351, floral chiffon, crepe lining
Cardigan; the free Miette pattern by Andi Satterlund, all details on my yarn and alterations to the pattern here
Tights; voodoo
Shoes; Vitullimoda, bought in Melbourne during my holiday over there with Mum and Cassie 🙂
location; Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia
Oh, that’s such a good insight on the scale of patterns!
thank you Mayrav 🙂
Beautiful dress! The photos in the park are stunning with that gorgeous light!
thank you so much Asheley! 🙂
Oh, I love your beautiful dress! I can imagine the lovely swinging of the chiffon when moving. The lining looks luxurious, such a pretty colour! I always would iron a strip of interfacing on the zip’s stitching line. Thank you so much for showing us your secret of how sewing this smooth finish of the lining at the zip.
That’s such a great tip about the lining around the zipper!
Glorious! Such a gorgeous fabric, and good call on the shorter length.
Thanks a mil’ for the heads up on your squared off lined invisizip Carolyn, thats a lovely finish. Great cardi too, I have quite a bit f 100% cotton but I think the yarn may not have enough ‘spring’ in it for Miette, may have to go shopping!! Stunning dress on you.
What a beautiful birthday dress! You really rock those Vogue designer patterns.
Such a gorgeous dress and extra special because it means you think of your friends when you wear it. Totally lovely as always, Carolyn.
Oh this dress is exquisite. What a beautiful print on that chiffon and the color you chose for the lining is perfect.
Gorgeous! This is a great birthday celebration dress for yourself, and just right for your time of year, the dark floral pattern with this beautiful wispy fabric. And the voodoo tights look great with it. I hope you had a great time swanning about in it with your girlfriends.
I couldn’t help but laugh about nipping that upcycle in the bud by making your dress shorter to start with. Hahaha. I wish I could put length back on sometimes after I’ve done the lopping off.
Lovely! I’ll have to give your tip about the lining around the zip a try; makes a lot of sense.
Very pretty, and a wonderful gift from your friends.
(I wish winters in the uk looked like your picture – generally they are grey and blurgh!)
OMG, SO beautiful! I particularly love those autumn backdrops and that side pic of you… SWOON.
this is so pretty, I love this DK pattern as it is simple yet perfect. (as many of hers are) Lovely.
Beautiful dress Caroline! So feminine – ethereal comes to mind 🙂 Your friends must have been thrilled to see what they bought you for your birthday!
thank you so much Kathleen!
I love the park photos! Your dress is gorgeous and so is the fabric.
Thanks for showing how you installed the lining around the zipper. I am making my dd’s wedding dress and was working out how to install the lining around the zipper, so very timely!
BTW it’s also quite a lovely dress and so becoming.
If Donna Karan had ever wanted an outdoor photo shoot for this pattern, this would be it! Very Lovely! I just ordered the pattern from Etsy!
Fabric and pattern are perfect for each other! 🙂 I love that print and I think the length if the skirt is perfect and I understand what you write about the correlation of length and print 🙂 I hope you had a great time on your birthday!
This is absolutely stunning!