Thursday, September 2, 2010

Vionnet dress - finished!

I don't like how I look in these photos, (when do I ever?) but I'm so pleased with the dress that I couldn't wait to show it off and couldn't wait for David to get home and take nice pictures (he makes me smile) and wanted to show it on me rather than the dummy - you get a much better idea of how it looks in real life. (Phew - need a breath after that sentence).

So here we go - angled view of the front:
And the back:

These shoes are not what I would likely wear with this dress, but they were the first heels I grabbed when getting organized to take the photos. And despite appearances to the contrary I am quite vain enough to want to make my legs look the best that I can. Which means heels.

I'm not wearing sucky-in undergarments (great suggestion Ann) because I don't own any. I've always worked on the theory that anything requiring such things was going to be too much work to wear! I may revisit this opinion, but this doesn't look too bad. I have several convertible bras which are ideal - just cross the straps at the back and we're good to go.

The hem I ended up just cutting. To stop the overlocked seams unravelling I would normally just stitch over the end, but given my sewing machine's dislike for this I decided to deal with the ends by threading them back through the seam. To have an end to thread after cutting the hem I left the seamlines uncut when I cut the hem, then unpicked the overlocking on the dangling seamlines, cut off the excess fabric, knotted the threads and threaded them through the seam.

My parents visited yesterday and were fascinated by the dress - especially my Dad, who is a retired structural engineer. He had a great appreciation for the dress' evolution from scaled schematic (with no indication given of what scale!) to dress. It is from him that I inherited my love of this sort of problem solving.


Now of course I want to WEAR it! Spring sprang yesterday with a gloriously bright sunny day so today is of course grey and overcast.
I'm not sure what's next. I have a large stack of possiblities from the Kirke book, or approximately seven kersquillion (yeah it is so a number!) other dresses that I'd like to make. With the twins weaned just after they turned two I will never breastfeed again (sad and not sad about that) so I can wear dresses whenever I want.


I'm linking to No Big Dill's sewing month challenge - to do something new. When I first read about it I struggled to think of something I hadn't done before - wedding dress(es)? yes. Design and pattern making? yes. Canvas boat cover (with clear plastic zipped door)? yes. Menswear? yes. Historical costumes? yes. Velvet, silk, wool, lace etc etc? yes. Then I realised that I have never made a dress for myself to wear from a pattern schematic of a design by Madeleine Vionnet (one of my design idols). So there's my first!

15 comments:

  1. "Doesn't look too bad"? Are you kidding? It looks fabulous on you!

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  2. Wow - that dress is AMAZING - what an incredible feat of sewing to have pulled off!

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  3. Oh. Em. Gee. That is SOOOOOOO fabulous! And you look fabulous in it, so double-fabulosity. Really, the fit is just stupendous and so is everything else.

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  4. Beautiful Judy. all you need is a smile! Glad you mentioned the shoes as my first reaction was great dress but not those shoes. Sandals would work.

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  5. The dress is gorgeous! You are going to love wearing it out.

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  6. What a yummy dress and such a fabulous job you did with the fit. I notice that cause it's so hard to do. Fabulous dress.

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  7. Utterly fabulous!! The dress is amazing and it looks wondeful on you. I'm not really seeing the need for any suck-y in undergarments though.

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  8. Those line, THOSE LINES are enamoring! And the draping is perfect! Well, done. Go out and celebrate. Wearing the dress, of course.

    katy

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  9. Beautiful dress & fit! I wasn't so sure when I saw the red toile, but the finished dress is so flattering and elegant. You picked the perfect fabric and your construction is impeccable

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  10. Oh hey, good, you commented on something just a little while ago. I take it that means your house wasn't crushed (either that, or you are one internet trooper). I'm very relieved.

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  11. Fabulous dress and you have no need for sucky-in underwear as it looks great on your figure. You will need somewhere special to wear this one!

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  12. WOWZAAAAA!!!!It fit's you perfectly, you should really take it out and show it off:)Sooo beautiful!!!!

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  13. Not only is the dress a fantastic success, it suits you perfectly. What a joy to make such fabulous clothes when you wear them so well.

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