I’ve made a new dress! Every year, my group of lovely friends gives me a gift voucher to Fabulous Fabrics for my birthday… basically my ideal pressie, and I get to go in and choose something yummy… this year I chose this utterly divine silk charmeuse printed with an unusual fractured design. It almost looks like a watercolour/hazy kinda of an abstract , that has been cut and laid in random, uneven ribbons across a pearly ivory ground and then printed like that. You can’t really “see” much of anything in the print when looked at as a whole, but if you look closely you can see areas which look like the topstitching on old levi’s, and a brown leather belt with a brass buckle… you’d never think of it to look at it!
I used Vogue 1351, and managed to eke out of my voucher allowance a length of ivory silk habotai to line it… this is so divine to wear against the skin! so it’s worth it for a slithery slippery little number like this.
… I showed off the lining briefly in my action video below… in which I am obviously totally upstaged by my little production assistant, and honestly I’m not in the habit of lifting up the dress to show off ma underpinnings generally, but I know sewing peeps would understand. Apologies for the crashingly bad quality btw, I’m still learning how to do these videos! editing is kinda tricky and I’m still in the stage where it’s super lucky if I get any clips in there at all, let alone in the right order, and well, forget about continuity. Hopefully I’ll get better at this over time!
I left in the turning off the camera bit at the end too, just because during editing I realised it showed off the cowl neck quite nicely and you can see how the bodice lining doesn’t flip out at all, but sits hugging your torso quite securely and nicely. One of the things about a cowl neck is how they can be too exposing if not done well, and I have a few of these in my own wardrobe that I need to be really careful with! but this pattern is not one of them. The cowl is supported beautifully by the lining in a very modest way. It’s one of my favourite patterns for this reason… this is my fourth time making the pattern, my previous versions are here, here and here. I still wear all of them pretty frequently, except for the green wool one, which came to a heartbreakingly tragic early demise thanks to a too hot wash cycle. I could have cried when I pulled out this mangled, felted little thing from the depths of the washing machine. We were still in the honeymoon phase and I was so excited to think I’d be wearing it a million times yet. *sigh* A moment’s silence please…
And a couple of commenters mentioned after my previous video, and thanks for the positive response! I’m so pleased it’s a feature that people might like! anyway, a few wanted to see more, particularly what things look like when you sit down, so I dashed out to quickly film and tack on an extra bit with that too, which also happens to show off the dress closure by invisible zip in the left hand side seam. I really like dresses that close in this way, much easier to do up than a centre back zip and makes for a nice seamless look.
Details:
Dress; Vogue 1351, silk charmeuse lined with silk habotai
Shoes, in the video; Pedro Miralles
It looks so cool and swishy and perfect for summer! It also looks like Clara is trying to steal the show. 😀
Purdue, indeed!
Darn spell checker.
Your dog is so cute! The dress is pretty cool too!
Such a beautiful dress and a wonderful birthday tradition on behalf of your friends. That video is gold, it’s so good to be able to see how a pattern behaves IRL.
so pretty! I love that pattern, you have reminded me of it. I have sewn it only in knits – should try it in silk.
Priddy purdy! The fabric is wonderful, lucky you!. Jo x
Perrrrfect. Everything about it. Doesn’t a bullseye dress like this make one’s insides happy, too?
Very nice combination of pattern and fabric – what a lovely dress.
Love the video! It really does tell the whole dress story. The cowl is lovely, and yet under control. It is so nice to wear a dress and have the whole story of the birthday present behind it.
Gorgeous! I think this is my favorite Vogue dress pattern on you! I love all versions you have made.
Love, love, LOVE the videos!!!! Brings the dress to ‘life’ and it is amazing the details one catches watching the video than what may be picked up by the camera. A lot of old-time Southerners, and especially long ago rural Southerners, sort of ‘slur’ their words. For instance my Great Aunt’s name was ‘Ella’ but I always heard ‘Eller’. Long ago census takers would transcribe these names as such too which makes genealogy tracing a little interesting. So….. ‘pretty’ would also be pronounced as ‘purdy’. Yes!! This dress is so ‘purdy’!! 🙂 P.S. And Clara is adorable. *Hugs!*
Gorgeous dress and Clara is a very good girl, not sure Tomba would be that still.
Very pretty! The fabric is so beautiful.
Gorgeous as always Carolyn, what an intriguing surface design.
OH, I have that pattern – and seeing you looking so beautiful in that wonderfully made dress reminds me that I should work on it. And Clara is the perfect addition to the video, I never tire of seeing her.
I love fabulous fabrics (they have some stunning material) and I am coveting your beautiful dress. Stunning!
Loving the video! One of my friends nags me to make videos but I always hate bits of them, whereas you’ve managed to look fabulous throughout. The dress is simply gorgeous, and the fabric is divine.