One-Shoulder Draped Dress Or What Happens When You Play With Fabric

Last summer I was playing with a large yardage of fabric and ended up draping it around myself in different diaphonous styles. It was a fun and eye-opening experience. Then, some time in May I came upon this beautiful silk Philip Lim dress (photo from bergdorfgoodman.com):

Oh, I loved it! I loved the free-form, the play with the stripe, the cute haletr effect, everything.

So, I started playing around with some fabric again, draping it on my dress form and on me. The style of the Lim dress did not work out for me, so I gave up. Then, a few days later I decided to try again something different, and my draping attempts ended up with these two variations of the same draped muslin:

Here is how I determined what orientation the srtipe should have:

It was kind of perfect: long, drapey, grecian-goddesss style, utilized stripe in the design, and one-shoulder! I have always wanted a one-shoulder top/dress!

I needed the right fabric, though, because for this style the fabric either makes or kills the dress. Quite luckily, I had a beautiful cotton voile bought from gorgeousfabrics.com last fall. It was one of those whilsical buys when you get a rather unique looking fabric with no particular idea what you'd make from it.

Two photos of the back:

Constructions details:

• fully lined in a taupe rayon
• french seams
• narrow hem
• the dress is cut somewhat on a bias (the stripe of the fabric was vertical and I was after a slightly-off effect).
• neckline is stabilized with interfacing strips.

The sewing part was obviously very straight-forward. Marking the hem, however, was a BEAR (from the grisley variety)! It took just about forever... Even DH got involved with marking the hem of the lining, so, yeah, it was something to remember.

I love the dress. It makes me feel pretty! And here it is with a jeans jacket: