A Vogue Stunner

This here is a dress I made for a friend to wear to a formal event where the theme is  'A night at the races, French style.'  I immediately thought of Audrey Hepburn and did a mental scan of my most fabulous patterns and thought of Vogue 9264 from 1958.

Vogue 9426

Close up of bodice

It has been made in a gun metal grey satin, that is unlike any I've seen before, the inside of this fabric feels alot like cotton.
This dress is a sewing achievement for me, as I did a bunch of things I've never done before. Firstly a muslin of the bodice.
The lovely tie at the front is and the front sleeve is are both part of the front side piece, making a t shape.  It was tricky stopping and starting, above and below seams and clipping the curves in all the right places.  Eeek.
The sleeves have gussets, which totally blew my mind for a while.  I'm way too traumatised to go into details, but I got there in the end.
Because this a dress for a formal event, I didn't want any top stitching, so all my hems are hand stitched, including a horse hair braid in the skirt's hem.  I love the effect of the horse hair braid and can see myself using it alot.  I attempted to hand stitch the zip, but the satin looked bubbly and quite awful, so I did my first ever invisible zip.  I didn't get any pictures, but trust me, it looks invisible!

Dodgy hand stitched zip

I love it and so does Jo.  I will get more pictures of Jo all done up as she will look even more stunning with all the right accessories!!
I was keen to try the other version of this dress, so I did.  I have used a vintage linen with a Dalmatian spot and a contrasting tie in pink silk.  Only because I was a little short on spotty fabric, but I like the result.  Can you bear it when you don't have enough fabric?  I much preferred working in this fabric.  The dress is lovely to wear.  Love it also.

Vogue 9426

Close up of tie

Vogue 9426