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.
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| Vogue 9426 |
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| Close up of bodice |
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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!
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| 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.
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| Vogue 9426 |
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| Close up of tie |
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| Vogue 9426 |
