Silk Pants and Top - ohhhhhhhhhh, the luxury....!

Soooo... I became an American citizen today! Exciting! About 30 people (including one refugee) from 23 countries were sworn today during the ceremony. I liked that it was a small ceremony (as opposed to a couple hundred people). It was touching actually and the lady who presided the ceremony was charmingly nervous. She said something that I thought was really worth mentioning. She said that her grandparents who arrived from Europe never talked to her (when she was a child) about why they chose to move, how they did it, what they had to go throught, etc. Then she added she really wished they had shared that with her. She went on addressing the people who were to be sworn to please share their stories with their children because it is important to know where you come from. DD (who is the only born in the USA in my family) got a flag, although what she was really eyeing were the balloons...

So, there!

Back to sewing. Back when I made my wool pleated pants I wrote I wanted to use the same pattern for a pair of silk bottoms. I used the same Burds WOF pattern , but omitted the back welt pockets. Why? Well, frankly, the hassle of making welt pockets on twitchy silk was not worth it.

The fabric I used is from my local Textile-o-Philes store. I used the silk to make the pockets and the binding too. I purchased the silk for the pants and the top together, I think they compliment each other so nicely!

Perhaps some of you might wonder how it was to sew pants from silk. It was not a piece of cake (definitely advanced intermediate level sewing skills necessary) but it was not bad either. I have one advise and I cannot stress enough how much following it helped me: thread-trace and baste! Since silk is so slippery, thread tracing helped keeping seams straight and avoided all the second-guessing. Basting helped prevent undoing seams, which with silk cam be desastrous. Also, on all visible from the right side seams I used Sulky 100% rayon thread. Due to the shine of the thread it blends well with the silk and the stitching does not become an unwanted "design element."

Silk Tank

This is a project I finished long time ago but did not photograph untillately.

It all started by me liking the new loosely cut tops, like the ones below from Alexander Wang and Rag and Bone (courtesy of shopbop.com and nordstrom.com). The cut is sexy in a subdued way.

I posted earlier that I intended to use Burda 7661 View B but then did not and drafted it by myself, copying the armhole of a tank I have. This is the muslin I made a few months ago:

Fabric: Floral silk charmeuse from my local fabric store Textile-o-Phile http://shop.textileophile.com/main.sc;jsessionid=9ADA420BB3C7982D88C538DCF692B430.qscstrfrnt01. The lining is also silk from the same store. I love the watercolor-ish print and the muted colors.

Construction:
The top consists of essentially 2 tops, shell and lining, attacked at the armholes and neckline. That, of course, eliminated the need for facing.
The hem is finished with a narrow hem.





Somehow it took me two muslins but I ended up with something I was truly happy with.

St. Tropez Tee

I had some remnants from the silk jersey I used for my maxi dress and wanted to make a top that would showcase how drapey the fabric is.
My yardage was limited though, so it had to be something streamlined. I was also inspired by the summer collection of the ultra-modern line MM6 designed by Maison Martin Margiela. Checksome of his summer stuff here: http://www.eluxury.com/estore/sales/public.jsp?catId=home&brand=900001, only I wanted something more resort-y, hence the name I chose for it - St. Tropez. Therefore, I went with a dolman short-sleeve tee/tunic, which was too fit loose but not as address, i.e. hug the hips. Did not find an exact pattern but Burda WOF has plenty dolman sleeve tops, so I got a good idea of what the pattern should look like.

Here is a sketch of the pattern and reference as to my measurements - same front and back, only the neckline on the front is deeper (pls, excuse my rookie sketch, I am not good at the illustration program.

I stabilized the shoulder seams with Fusi Knit bias strips

The hem is a single-fold one and coverstitched.

The sleeves are rolled up and tacked down.

Neckline: Let’s just start by saying that I dislike making necklines on knits, period. I know it is not a rocket science but to me it seems like a very fiddly affair (especially if RTW finish is desired)! So, I am not 100% happy with the neckline but it is as good as I’ll ever get it to be… Neckline woes aside, I think it is a fairly wearable top that can be dressed up with custom jewelry and a cool bag, as well as dressed down with yoga pants and a sports bra.

Maxi Dress

I have been reading in magazines that maxi dresses are in and wanted to make one. The design of this dress is not originally mine - I saw a similar dress last summer in a boutique downtown. I liked the simplicity of the design lines counteracted by the impact of the front drape.



The dress is made from yellow silk jersey purchased in the spring from http://www.gorgeousfabrics.com/. I love print but think I am too petite to wear one, so I went with a vivid color instead.

The construction is really simple – no hemming, two side seams, ¾” elastic in the back and a tie that drapes the front and goes behind the neck. The actual construction time, even if you are a slow and anal sewer like me, takes max of 2.5 hrs including the cutting of the fabric.

There is perhaps one construction point worth of mentioning. When folding down the casing for the ties, after the cf is slashed, a triangle is inserted to fill in the space. It helpd if the slash line is interfaced prior to slashing.

Construction simplicity apart, it took me 2 muslins to get it right. Fortunately, I had a few pieces of ugly poly knits in my stash :) Interestingly, for me at least, the hard part about getting the pattern right was having the side seam hanging perpendicular to the floor. The front drape tended to force the side seam to come forward to the front. The first photo below is of the 1st muslin (you can see by how much it was off) and on the 2nd muslin (as you can see) has the issue resolved:

This is the pattern I ended up with:

There was one last issue to be resolved – the modesty issue (the rayon jersey is transparent enough to make people look). In a nutshell, I considered two options: an undergarment and an underlining. I ruled out underlining the dress since I thought that there would be too much fabric in the front. I have a wonderfully lightweight rayon jersey in yellowish-ecru from http://www.emmaonesock.com/ and thought that it would be right for an undergarment. I also wanted to have the possibility of wearing the dress without the undergarment if say on a beach vacation where modesty would be a non-issue. My solution was to make a “tube” from fabric. How I did it: I wrapped the fabric around my hips to establish how wide the tube should be and a/flared out slightly towards the hem, and b/tapered ever so slightly towards the bust. The top edge is finished with delicate lingerie fold-over elastic. The piece is worn under a strapless bra if you wear a bra or by itself if your girls don’t need one. Thankfully, the fabric is so lightweight and silky that it does not bunch under the bra at all. Here is a picture that shows the sheerness of the material:

And here is the undergarment w/o and with a strapless bra:



Both the dress and the undergarment are unhemmed – the edge was cut with a blade and I applied a tiny bit of clear nail polish to the very edge.