Grey Squares' Dress

This summer, I have done a round trip in South-East Asia, starting in Singapore, going through Malaysia and a part of Indonesia. And of course, I could not miss the opportunity to buy fabric, in each of these countries. 

In Malaysia, I was deceived at first, because most of the shops carried a terrible poly-something in all the possible colours and patterns, which was cheap even for the local budgets, but horrible when touched. Till… I fell in fabric heaven at Gulati silk – a five-floor shop, out of which I have only seen 3, and most loved the ground floor with its silks, cottons and silk-cottons. I left there with a huge bag of fabrics – in the cutest colours.

The patient shop-assistant who had his commission this day.

This is where I bought this cotton silk: the fabric is rather mate and crispy on the right side and shiny and slippery on the wrong side. So I was even hesitating whether to line the dress or not. And of course, I made my usual mistake and only bought one meter of this, in addition, there was a white line in the middle.

The autumn has already started in Paris, so I wanted to make another Colette-Peony dress, with longer sleeves, like this one. I can tell you, getting the pattern from the fabric was a real puzzle, but I can proudly say that I managed without having to cheat. I even had enough to cut the interfacing. As it is an autumn dress, I lined it entirely with black silk.

I did not bother with pattern matching, for two reasons: First, I barely had enough fabric for that and second, I assume the size and fussiness of this fabric is important enough so that the non-matching does not offend anybody.

There is not much to add to my own Colette Peony, this is my third version and I can now sew it blindfolded. I added pockets, even though after having it worn, I cannot put much in them. 

The dress is pretty light in itself, so anything like your phone or badge is adding too much weight. Never mind, after all the fuss with the pockets, I will not waste my time on closing them, right :o)

All I all, very happy about this make.

Inspiration: the fabric

Pattern: self-drafted, inspired by Colette Peony dress

Pattern changes: none

Technique: pockets

Fabric: grey-brown squared cotton-silk

Time to Complete: 2 weeks

Total Cost: 42 EUR

Backflash to summer

I just realized that I have not blogged for almost 3 months. What happened – not much. It all started with a crazy sewing period before my vacation when I was trying to finish some silk tops and a dress, 3 weeks of a great holiday in South-East Asia and then somehow work and daily life got over. I went back to sewing but was too exhausted to find time for blogging.

So, let’s just have a look at my last summer make before I get to present my latest creations. I bought this dark leopard silk at the beginning of the year and …. Was certainly NOT thinking enough … made a summer top from it, first. Which means that I ended up with about 90cm of the fabric trying to squeeze out a summer dress afterwards. Mental note: think before cutting and do the dress first.

Anyhow, I used Burda 134-05/2013 which is a nice vintag-y dress without sleeves and I had already tested it last year (never blogged about, because I never wore it). This time I tried to avoid the mistakes, such as adjusting the cleavage and armscyes on the last minute.

The dress is made from quite a slippery silk, with the upper part lined – I realized it was a cleaner solution than any bias binding or whatever finish I could imagine.

I finished the dress 2 days before the departure and I was so glad I did. The dress was just perfect for the hot and humid weather in Singapore and Malaysia, it felt like wearing nothing, or almost nothing.

Unfortunately, I do not have any dress form pictures, and it is now packed with all my summer clothes, so at least a few of me wearing it (with a different décor than my balcony).

Even though I love looking at my vacation pictures and remembering how hot it was over there, the autumn is officially here and I digged out all the wool fabric which is such a pleasure to sew with after all the slippery silk tops.

Inspiration: Burda vintage dress

Pattern: 134-05/2013

Pattern changes: shortened shoulder

Technique: NN

Fabric: dark leopard silk

Time to Complete: a week

Total Cost: 19 EUR