Special silk dress and a 50th

In 2003 I made this Burda dress (6/2013 #105). I've seen this pattern as an envelope pattern about 6 months ago so look out for it if you like it (although I know it was old and probably out of print). It wasn't a style I thought would suit my pear shape, but I'm surprised how flattering I think it looks.

I made it out of this nice quality polyester which I picked up at a Brisbane Spoolette's High Tea and I really love it still. It's makes me feel great when I wear it. 

A few years ago (ok many - 2012 in fact) my beautiful friend went to Vietnam and thought to bring me some silk! What a friend. She has amazing taste and bought me 2 1/2 metres of a white and floral satin silk. For the first 5 years after she kept asking me if I'd made anything with it, and in my head I had made about 100 things but nothing was quite right. She stopped asking then.  Truth be told I wanted to make this same Burda pattern but decided in my head it wasn't enough fabric.  Come early February this year, I received an invitation to her 50th birthday bash and I knew I had to make a dress from this gifted fabric and wear it and I got out the pattern to play with it. 

 Sharon is wearing heels and I'm in flats but still - what a shortie!

Here is me and my friend at her party. When I walked in she lit up because I was there then she recognised the fabric and was super surprised! I love this dress. It feels like I'm wearing ....well, silk, which is so lovely. When she bought me the fabric, I bought some silk lining from The Fabric Store so that was also on hand. (I don't see the point of making a silk dress and lining it in anything other than silk... I want to feel that fabric).

It's not perfect. It's only two pieces - a front and back. It wasn't enough fabric but then decided I would lay it out on the cross grain and it fit. Plus I liked better how the flowers ran down the length of the dress. I omitted the zip. I never use the zip on the black one - even though I put in an invisible zip perfectly for once. Of course as is my usual, I started it on the morning of the party. The bonus was to be that my dress would be made ready and waiting for the Brisbane Spoolette's High Tea - but covid19 put a stop to that.

This is when I got home to get a full length shot to show the whole dress. It's shorter than the black. Both dresses hem lengths were the fabric lengths. Too busy sewing to pay enough attention to my hair... ha ha ha!

I have tiny shoulders and it's not fitting well under the arm. I mentioned I made this in 3 hours so I didn't have time for the fine tuning it needs there. In the pattern, you put a little stretch of elastic under there, but the first piece wasn't quite enough, so time factor made me just stretch another piece of silicon swimming elastic over it, so it's a little bulky but I will take that out and take the seams in a little and do that elastic again. On reflection the silk lining is a little too lightweight to stop it creasing so much. The front pattern piece has a dart on the sleeveless side. The lining (separate pattern pieces) is like a sleeveless dress so the batwing flies free. I did a rolled hem on the batwing sleeve edge and the hem. The wonderful thing was my sewing machine and overlocker played nice and I had no issues so I could finish in my limited time frame. 

I LOVE this dress and the fabric. My perfect colours and so luscious! I am so pleased to have used a special, loved fabric. This was the last very special event for me before covid19 hit us. I've got a lot of beautiful fabric and I'm using it as much as I can. I might even wear this dress to do the grocery shopping! Thank you my beautiful friend .

I have a Simplicity 1366 top cut out in a floral silk chiffon remnant and a Butterick 6621 knot waist dress cut out and hoping to finish this weekend. Plus I have another Butterick knit dress finished I need to photograph. I made it from a H&M dress I bought for the fabric to test the pattern as it was only $5 and a nice rayon knit. Stay well.