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:

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.

On Reliving the 80's - Strapless Jersey Jumpsuit

In the 80's I was a kid living in a communist country, so no, sort of the cold war, I did not get to experience that decade. My husband still finds it perplexing that I do not recognize bands/tunes/movies from that era, and I understand how a Westerner would find it difficult to comprehend what it was behind the Berlin wall, from a cultural perspective, that is. What I do remember though is the AWFUL hair and I hope that trend never gets resurrected.

Anyway, perhaps because I never got to truly experinece the 80's, I am now transfixed with some of the trends that reinterpret that decade, namely jumpsuits. If you think that it is hard to find RTW that fits, then it is three times that hard to find a fitting jumpsuit. Luckily, I can sew.

I was trying to find a photo of my inspiration piece and the website I saw it at is sold out, hence no photo. You can still see it here http://www.intermixonline.com/product/designers/helmut+lang/strapless+jersey+jumpsuit.do?sortby=ourPicks but the photographs really did not capture the details. What you won't see in the photos is a pretty cool drapey "Pattern Magic"-type design feature in the back. I have no ides how it was done and did not try to replicate it since it would have only been distinguishable if the piece was worn unbelted, which I did not intend to do.

The drafting was not hard, particularly since I have already drafted a jumpsuit couple of weeks before. The fullness at the chest and the length of the rise needed the most work/decisions. Once the pattern was made, the sewing part was a breeze, it took me couple of hours from cutting all the way through having it compeltely done.

I made it from a rayon jersey I got in the fall from EOS.

More photos:

(btw, it is very hard to photogrpah black, especially when you are doing it yourself, so pls excuse the not so great quality of the photos. I wanted to wait to DH who has aprofessional camera, but he is here only during the weekends and the weekends have been lacking sun recently.)

Closer-ups:

Notes on design features & construction:

• strapless, pull-on style
• pleated front and back
• a pleat at the side seam overlapping from front to back
• 1.5" elastic sewn to top and then turned under
• reinforced front and back crotch

I am very happy with the was it turned out. It is actually better than I thought it would be! In summation - I LOVE it and hope to wear it a lot this summer!

Quick Update

I passed my Immigration Interview last Tuesday and my oath ceremony is this Saturday!
Thanks for all the good wishes!

Beaded Belt

Thanks to everyone who wished me luck on the interview! I'll let you all know the result.

So, late this afternoon I realized I did not have passport photos for the interview tomorrow. Not good... I had to go to Walgreens and take care of that. I could have gone in my sweats, however, since there are a few things I've made and have not photographed yet, I decided to get dressed. The weather around 6pm was cool, so I could not wear any of the summer garments I've sewn, however, I still managed to incorporate the beaded belt I made.

The belt is made from the same beaded trim I used for my necklace. Obviously, all you need is trim and snaps, very easy!

I have worn it with a plain white tee, with an oversized gray tee, with a white button-down, there are plenty of options. It dresses up simple tops and since it is in itself jewelry-like, you don't have to wear any other.

Here is how I wore it today:

Update

I apologize for not having posted in a long time. I am taking an intensive 5-week course that is normally taught over a 14-week period. Although I don't find the material difficult, there is a lot of reading and writing involved which takes a lot of time.

I am also scheduled for my citizenship interview and test tomorrow afternoon, so I had to prepare for that as well.

DH started traveling again and is away 4 days a week. DD is, of course, missing him and clinging to me more than usual.

All in all, I have no sewing time. I started a puffy skirt 2 weeks ago that I am yet to finish. I also have some things that have been finished for a while now but the weather has been so unpleasant that I am still to take photos of them.

Hopefully the interview/test tomorrow will go smoothly.

I'll try to post a finished project by the end of the week.

Adriana