just in the nick of time....

Saturday 24 October 2009
Well I've been playing around with my new machine and I just love it! It is so quiet and just does everything with ease so I am definitely happy with the purchase. Haven't sewn a stitch of curtains yet (or even unrolled the fabric from the roll for that matter), but I have nearly finished a skirt for myself where I made keyhole buttonholes just because I can now, and a pair of shorts for Anna using a decorative stitch around the hem again just because I can, and I made myself a fancy dress using super slippery fabric that was no problem for this machine.

My mother's group had planned a night out sans babies and husbands for cocktails and dinner in the city on Friday night and since this is a rare and hence very special occasion for me I decided a new dress was in order. In fact, a new dress using some red and pale gold floral patterned silk satin fabric I bought from the Remnant Warehouse a few years ago and was waiting for the right pattern to come along. You know those fabrics that are too beautiful to cut into for just any old thing? When I saw BWOF 5/09, dress 117 I knew it would be just perfect for this fabric.













I even made a muslin out of some fugly satin fabric I had in the stash to get the fit right, which I'm glad I did because the skirt is super long and has a lot of ease in it due to the pleats so I ended up cutting a size smaller for the skirt than I normally would for a BWOF. Doing the muslin was also good to practice sewing the unusual kimono style sleeves on the front. Even with practice though they were majorly fiddly and the points still didn't turn out perfect on my finished version, but I don't think it's overly noticeable since they are in the folds of fabric around the armpits anyway. Thankfully Audrey over at her blog SewTawdry (tee hee, I love that blog name!) had put together a tutorial on this dress which was of a great help, and her version is just gorgeous.

Anyway, with making the muslin and other distractions I only just finished the hem on this dress on Friday afternoon, enough time to press it and put it on straight away! It came close to becoming a UFO, because it was so annoying to sew together but I'm glad I persevered 'cos I think it looks pretty good:

I underlined the silk satin fabric with some organza I also had in the stash to give it more body and to have something to hand sew the hems down on to so they wouldn't show through to the outside. This is what made it difficult to sew actually, the layers kept slipping and sliding and needed a gazillion pins to keep it in place. But again I think it was worth the extra effort because it reduced wrinkling too, even after a looong night out it was hardly wrinkled at all.

What I like most about this pattern is that the pleated front bodice pieces are sewn into the side seams which eliminates any gaping you traditionally get with a cross front dress. The neckline is of a modest and wearable height too, which is unusual for Burda patterns which in my experience seem to specialise in having acres of cleavage on show (which is fine if you some to show off!)

The night out was great too - get a bunch of mums out on the town and we go all out and make the most of it! Seriously, I didn't get home until 3am, and since my husband was up at 5.30am for golf and then Anna was up at 6am full of beans to start her day, you can imagine how extremely tired I am today. Good thing I've have nine months of sleep deprivation training. But I had some great lychee and ruby grapefruit cocktails and Vietnamese food at the Libertine in Kings Cross, which I can strongly recommend for any Sydneysiders reading this. But now I think I need a month of early nights to recover now, I'm getting too old for that sort of caper LOL.......

32 comments:

  1. Your dress is beautiful . I love your fabric choice it makes it really special . I love the shoes too !

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  2. Beautiful dress! I loved it when I saw it in the magazine, and it's fun to see it made up.

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  3. Beautiful dress and that is definitely a pre baby waistline! Congrats on both!

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  4. Love it! you look smashing!!!!

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  5. The dress is beautiful and you look stunning in it! Glad you had a great time out!!!

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  6. This is a gorgeous dress and you look beautiful in it.

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  7. That fabric is beautiful on you!! Congrats on your new machine!!

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  8. You are right - worth the effort - you look amazing. I shall now have to put this on my "must copy" list.

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  9. You look fabulous!! Great job, and well done of milking every last second from that well deserved night out!

    I loved this dress when the issue first came out but haven't had a chance to sew it yet so I'm glad the pattern works so well.

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  10. Your dress is gorgeous! I too love lychee cocktails - margerita is my favourite.

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  11. The dress turned out great! The color sure is good on you! Good for you... nothing like having great stuff in the stash!
    I went today and traced and cut out fabric alphabet letters to use for the grand's to play with and learn letters. They are huge block letters, and then you use batting to sandwich inbetween with fabric backs and snip (like I did Anna's quilt) and then you wash them... cute, and a great way for them to learn their letters too! Soft and felixable!

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  12. It looks like a gorgous dress, very well made and really suits you! Um, sorry to plague you with questions, do you think the dress would work with an A-line skirt?

    Glad to hear you got out it sounds like a great night!

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  13. Gorgeous dress - perfect combination of fabric and design! You look terrific and glad to hear you had such a great night out.

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  14. Kristy, I'm planning this dress is very similar fabric for my daughters pre-formal cocktail party. I'll be looking at this post for any fitting and crafting hints.

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  15. Ooh, lovely dress! Beautifully done and lovely colours on you.

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  16. That dress is just gorgeous. I'm also happy that you had a good night out. The first night I got together with the girls without babies and husbands I caught some sort of gastro thingy and was home vomiting by 8pm. A very short night and I just cried and cried because I had been looking forward to a night out for so long. Love the dress, hope you get to wear it lots.

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  17. Beautiful dress! Glad to hear you enjoyed your night out. They don't come along very often.

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  18. This dress is a perfect example of the magic that happens when the right fabric and pattern come together - it's just stunning! You've made a beautiful job of it, and it looks brilliant on. (I totally agree about special nights out requiring new dresses too)

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  19. Ooh, I love it! What a great design and color on you. I want to make this dress sometime, too, but now that it's almost winter it'll have to wait for next year.

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  20. The dress is BEE-YU-TIFUL! I'd say the new seiwng machine was worth the money!

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  21. The dress is perfect on you Kristy. I spent the morning making a muslin of a dress that just didn't suit me. Now after seeing how great this one looks on you I'm going to ditch what I started and follow your lead!

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  22. That dress is perfect on you... must go check out that pattern...

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  23. Wow I love that dress! I've been thinking about making it, but was put off by the sleeve thing. I might be forced to give it a go now. The shoes are perfect with it. You look fantastic!

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  24. The fiddeling work piad off. The dress is awesome and you look beautiful in it!

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  25. Beautiful dress! I'm glad I ran across your blog!

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  26. I actually did a muslin for this pattern recently-- didn't work on me at all because the pleats at the hips were doing funny things with my figure. But it looks great on you! And I like your choice of fabric.

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  27. Your dress is just gorgeous! Lovely fabric and a great fit. Yikes, I can just imagine the extra effort required to making it with the 2 layers; the silk satin fashion fabric and the organza. But I think it was a smart decision on your part to underline to add some body and structure. I am glad my blog was helpful. I did all that research before I was confident enough to tackle that dress, so I reasoned it might be helpful to others. I love reading posts about your daughter and the sewing you do for her. It brings back pleasant memories of sewing with cute fabrics for my "babies".

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  28. The dress is gorgeous and you look so pretty and happy in it. Lovely job!!

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  29. You look wonderful in your new dress.

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  30. Perfect attire for a cocktail caper. Love it!

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