Wednesday 18 December 2013

Minerva Blogger Network - The Blue Christmas dress (with extra construction pics)





For my make this month I wanted something festive and chose this beautiful Prada (eek!) crepe.   I chose the fabric first and set out to find a pattern that would work and make the most of the gorgeous drape.  Retro Butterick 5707 fit the bill, with its cowl neckline.

The fabric has a shiny satin side and a matt crepey side.  I had intended to use both sides in the dress with the shiny side for the cowl, but loved the matt teal side so much that I only used the shiny side for the belt!
As I was too scared to cut into such lovely fabric without one, I made a toile of the bodice.  I lengthened the bodice by 3” (which I think may have been too much) and graded out from a 14 bodice to a 16 for waist and skirt. I did my usual ½” FBA.  The skirt is super long in the pattern – I’m 5’9” and it came to mid calf.  I had intended to use the long skirt as per the pattern but it didn’t look right, so I ended up cutting 3” off to make it knee length.

I bound all the seams with rayon seam binding as I wanted to treat such special fabric well!   After discussion with the lovely Tania, I ordered some Hug Snug seam binding from Ebay in the US.  It finishes the seams beautifully but adds no bulk at all.  It's great stuff - somewhere in the UK must stock it so if anyone finds a UK retailer please let me know!  However my application of it leaves a bit to be desired (hence why there are no close up pics in this post!)




After a total fail on inserting the zip by machine, I did a hand-picked zip.  I also sewed the sleeve hems and skirt hem by hand to avoid having stitching showing on the right side.


I made a self fabric belt using the shiny side of the fabric and a silver buckle from Minerva.  I love the belt (although it needs a press stud to keep it closed due to the slippiness of the satin – I didn’t think that one through well!  But it looks good!)
I’m a bit disappointed that the neckline isn’t as drapey as I expected – I think it would have been perfect in this fabric. It definitely seems like a more modern shape rather than a proper cowl.  I was envisaging a Mad Men style cocktail dress, but the end result seems to have lost a lot of the vintage feel.  I think I left a bit too much ease in the bodice, but it will definitely be better for eating a nice big Christmas dinner! But I think the end result is much more wearable than the full-on vintage style in the pattern would have been.





I do love the dress.  It’s very comfortable and doesn’t cling to tights due to the satin inside, so no slip needed.  I would say I can’t wait for Christmas to come so I can wear it, but I have far too much to do before then!  Still at least I know what I’m wearing!

If you like my Blue Christmas dress, you can make your own with the Minerva kit, which contains the Butterick 5707 pattern, 2 metres of the teal crepe and the silver belt buckle I used.
And for extra points if you got this far, how about some awkward pics of the "pretend to put the baubles on the  Christmas tree" variety?

18 comments:

  1. The pattern illustratin does look more cowl like, but I guess it's just an illustration! Never mind. Your version is beautiful. The colour is absolutely gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks Helen. I love the colour. It's one of my favourites!

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  2. A lovely Christmas season dress. The colour is amazing! Great Minerva make lady

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    1. Thanks Amy! At least part of my Xmas prep is done!

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  3. The colour is just gorgeous! I got this pattern early on in my sewing journey but never made it up - partly because I have a cowl neck obsession and I feared I wanted more drape - such a lovely colour and it looks great on! Who cares what it it was supposed to be? If it's good as it is - lets just enjoy that!

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    1. thanks lovely lady! would love to see it on you - i wish i could think how to modify the pattern piece to make it drapier but it's such a funny shape i'm not sure how to do it.

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  4. Such lovely fabric and colour! I've always wanted to try seam binding too. Maybe next time I'm ordering up big from the U.S. I'll add some to my list!

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    1. thanks nessa. i ordered from zipperstop on ebay and it was i think $6 for 100m roll plus $5 postage per roll. so not horrendously expensive vs the prices i have seen per metre in uk. you tend to use a lot of it in each garment. send me an email if you want me to send you a sample piece!

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  5. Gorgeous dress and gorgeous fabric. I have some of that Hug Snug stuff but I haven't got round to using it yet. I will definitely give it a go after reading this.

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    1. thanks jo - definitely try it on a fabric where you don't want to add bulk as it is really light. it is a pain to do but it looks lovely and feels very special!

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  6. This is such a great colour for you! Congratulations on another very successful make :)

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    1. thanks sally. it is a gorgeous colour. actually feels quite christmassy but i don't know why!

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  7. Pretty! That's such a lovely color for you!

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    1. thanks so much jennifer. it is one of my favourites!

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  8. Wowzers doll I've just seen this. You look stunning!

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