Violet Tie Dress

I was invited to two weddings in may, and on one of the invitations there was written "black tie" for the evening part, so I needed a dress. As it was a wedding, black wasn't an option, and I wanted to have it knee length, too. And I had to be fast as there wasn't much time (although I have to say that buying one would not have been quicker). So I went with a variation of a pattern I've already sewn before.

Im Mai war ich zu zwei Hochzeiten eingeladen, und bei einer von beiden wurde auf der Einladungskarte für die Feier am Abend "Black Tie" gewünscht, also brauchte ich ein entsprechendes Kleid. Da es ja eine Hochzeit war, habe ich von der Farbe schwarz eher abgesehen, und ausserdem wollte ich das Kleid nur knielang haben, nicht bodenlang. Und ich musste schnell sein da nicht mehr viel Zeit war zum Nähen (ich bin mir aber sicher, dass Einkaufen auch nicht schneller gewesen wäre). Also habe ich mir mein Kleid aus schon mal genähten Schnittmustern zusammen gesetzt. 

I used Burdastyle 08/2010 for the bodice, which I had already used for my Vienna gala evening dress. This pattern features a short tulip skirt, but I am not so much in tulip skirts, so I used the skirt part of another Burda dress (Burdastyle 11/2007) instead.

Für das Oberteil habe ich den Schnitt aus der Burdastyle 08/2012 verwendet, mit dem ich auch schon mein Wiener Abendkleid genäht habe. Dieser Schnitt sieht einen knielangen Tulpenrock vor, aber Tulpenröcke sind nicht so mein Fall, also habe ich statt dessen den Rockteil eines anderen Burda-Kleides (Burdastyle 11/2007) verwendet. 

As for the bodice, I did not have enough time to add boning all around as I did for my Vienna gala dress with all the additional work that means. I was worried, though, that the back would crinkle or collapse as it is attached to the shoulder straps on very small points near the center back, so I added some spiral steel boning to the side seams and vertical back seams, while using the seam allowances of the lining as boning cases.

Ich hatte nicht genügend Zeit, um wie bei dem Wiener Abendkleid das ganze Oberteil mit Stäbchen zu verstärken. Befürchtete aber doch, dass es sich am Rücken zusammenstauchen würde, da hier das Oberteil nur an zwei kleinen Stellen an der Rückenmitte mit den Trägern verbunden ist. Darum habe ich eine schnelle Variante gewählt und nur in die Seitennähte und die hinteren Teilungsnähte des Innenfutters Spiralstäbchen eingebaut. Dafür habe ich die Nahtzugaben als Tunnel verwendet. 

The fabric is silk dupioni, which is a dream to work with, apart from that it frays like nothing. On some parts, my seam allowances were reduced to about half the width after trying on the dress one single time!

Bei dem Stoff handelt es sich um Dupion-Seide, die sich sehr gut näht, aber ausfranst wie nix Gutes. An manchen Stellen war die Nahtzugabe bis auf die Hälfte reduziert, nur nach einmal Anprobieren!

I underlined all of the bodice parts with silk organza. The skirt was underlined with some really stiff petticoat tulle - and embellished with some trim at the hem seam to hide the frayed fabric edge.

Um alles insgesamt etwas stabiler zu machen, habe ich das Oberteil komplett mit Seidenorganza unterlegt. Der Rockteil hat einen steifen Petticoat-Tüll als Unterlage bekommen und wurde an der inneren Saumkante mit etwas Spitze verziert, hauptsächlich um die Fransen an der Stoffkante zu verstecken. 

Here is the back view with the huge ties - luckily I can put the dress on and off without untying those, so that I don't have to make the knot in my back.

Und hier ist die Rückenansicht mit der riesigen "Schleife", die eigentlich gar keine ist. Glücklicherweise kann ich das Kleid an- und ausziehen, ohne den Knoten zu öffnen, so dass ich ihn nicht im Rücken binden muss. 

See how nicely the back bodice is held up by the boning?
I am so happy with this dress - and felt totally appropriately dressed in it!

Die Stäbchen im Rücken scheinen zu funktionieren! 
Ich war letzten Endes ziemlich zufrieden mit dem Kleid - und fühlte mich auch angemessen gekleidet darin!

Retro Bubblegum Dress

I was bored last sunday, and wanted to sew something, but I didn't have a specific project planned, and still didn't feel like making another big project, too. But I still had the pink poplin I had used to line my bag (I actually had bought it to make some piping, but didn't do it in the end). I wasn't sure at all if the color would be nice for a dress, since it is very... well, pink! But when I was browsing through my vintage patterns, I found this one from 1968, with a very pink dress on the envelope:

I was not sure about the pattern as well. Although I like the illustration on the envelope, I thought it might be too girly for me. So as there was nothing to lose, I decided I would make an experiment and try the pattern with the pink poplin and see what happens. 

And I still can barely believe what I did: as the pattern came in my size, and I assumed that it would not be too "fit sensitive", I used directly the old vintage pattern, without tracing it before (which I normally do). I did use a smooth copying wheel instead of the serrated one, though. 

I fitted the dress while sewing, which means there was quite some basting (and ripping), but this time I managed to make the armholes not too small, phew!

As I didn't have any matching zipper in my stash, I used the next best, a white one, which I put in with a center lapped zipper so that it is not visible when I'm wearing the dress. I also stitched the back darts only at the upper part and left the lower dart parts as a kind of pleat. (Excuse the wrinkles on the dress, please, I stupidly took the photo after I was wearing it.)

The dress was finished very quickly, so I put it in my suitcase to go to Vienna last week, and wore it there, and I have to say that I like it a lot!

I think I'll make a dress again later from this pattern (after tracing it, as it somehow felt wrong and rude to use it directly on the fabric, doesn't that sound stupid?). For the moment I'm glad to have another summer dress. The photos were taken in Vienna when we went to the castle to listen to a concert, by my friend and colleague Gieri (thanks, Gieri, you're the best!)

And of course I took my gala evening dress out! The event took place in Schönbrunn Castle, it was a nice evening, and I felt comfortable and dressed appropriate in my black dress. I even found some long black gloves to go with it over there (try to find them in Zurich, it's hopeless)!

Here I am posing for photos with my friend Evelyn, we had so much fun!

The Vienna Gala Evening Dress: Finished!

The Vienna Gala Evening Dress is finally finished! Right in time, because next tuesday I'm going to pack it into my suitcase to take it with me to Vienna on wednesday.

Now some construction details:
Instead of an invisible zipper at the side seam, I put in a centered back zipper by hand. I don't like side zippers, and I often heard that invisible zippers tend to break more easily, so I thought this version would be better for me. And I think that it looks nice and not too conspicuous. Putting zippers in by hand is really much easier than putting them in by machine!

Here is a peek inside the dress. I underlined the whole dress with silk organza, but I lined only the bodice part, with self fabric. I also added a waist-stay, being careful to not make it too snug, since, like everybody knows, you can eat wonderful Schnitzel and Buchteln and Sachertorte in Vienna, and unfortunately, the gala evening will take place on the last day... you know what I mean?

To remove the bulge in the upper front skirt part was a problem. I started with distributing the gathers of the skirt only at the sides, but that resulted in stress wrinkles at the front. So I gathered the skirt evenly again, pinned out some of the excess fabric and stitched that as two darts, ending about one centimeter away from the waistline, which finally did the trick and is nearly invisible between the gathering.

But I couldn't solve the problem of the ties in the back which don't want to lie flat when they are knotted together, although I spent some time only adjusting the back ties (which takes even more time if you don't have anybody to help you with pinning them in your back!). But this is a flaw I can live with.

Altogether, I am really happy with how the dress came out! Although it's not perfect, it still fits better than any other store bought dress I could buy around here. And it has a nice slimming effect!
I'm gonna wear it with black evening gloves (unfortunately I could not find any longer gloves in Zurich), and with my vintage, beaded evening purse. Vienna, here I come!

Want to have a martini with me, anybody?

The Vienna Gala Evening Dress: First Try-On

I was really, really excited when I slipped into my dress this first time. The intended fit is quite snug and I want to be sure that the dress will fit, so I decided to baste it all together first for a fitting, something I've never done before, I usually just rely on my muslin. But this time I did not want to take any risk.

I found the perfect fabric for it already some months ago in my favorite fabric store, it is a very nice taffeta in a silk-cotton blend with a soft lustre. I decided to underline the whole dress with silk organza to get a crispy touch.
(Sad news: my favorite fabric store doesn't have any silk organza any more, and they will not be able to sell it any more in the future. So I'll have to look for another source for that stuff, as I don't get it anywhere else around here.)




I also added a second layer of underlining to the back bodice and lower front bodice parts to which I attached the boning channels (cotton twill tape in my case).

The instructions to do so come from Susan Khalje's "Bridal Couture", which is sort of my "teacher" in making this dress.

I also cut the spiral steel boning, which I'm glad that it's done now.


Then I basted the dress together by hand. I also basted a zipper in the back, as there is nobody to pin me into and out of the dress.

The first thought when I had the dress put on? It looks a lot better made up in a nice black fabric than in the muslin (which is actually an old bedsheet). Phew!

I am really glad that I did the basting before actually sewing it, though. The bedsheet fabric stretched out more than the taffeta, so the dress is a bit too snug around the lower bodice. I also decided to lower the skirt for about 1.5 cm (given that my seam allowances are only 2 cm, that means I'll lower the skirt as much as possible).

And I will gather the front skirt only at the sides, because the gathering all the front long does look good in the front view, but in the side view it makes a funny bump that is not very flattering!

And this is how it looks like at the back:

Not too bad, I think. The excess fabric at the bottom is the vent underlap, as this is not a critical part to be fitted I just left it open.

Altogether, I am really happy with it, the fitting issues are easy enough to solve and I'm happy that I do know about them now. Better for my nerves. And hand basting the whole thing didn't take as much time as I expected but was well worth it. I already took the dress apart again and now I'm off to putting it all together!

The Vienna Gala Evening Dress: The Muslin

I will be attending a congress in June, together with some colleagues (who are also my friends). The congress will take part in Vienna, and there will be also a gala evening as a part of it. So I need a dress for it.
After discussing the topic with my colleagues, it was quite clear that it had to be a long evening dress, as highly recommended by those who know the event dresscodes. Being a short person, I usually prefer knee length dresses, I just think they work better for me. But of course I don't want to be the only person wearing a short dress among all the other women in long gowns. And then I thought, when it has to be a long dress anyway, then it should be a really great one.

And the most classy, elegant and stylish long evening dress of all times is certainly:

Photo from Valeria Manferto de Fabianis: "A Matter of style - Intimate portraits of 10 women who changed fashion"

Photo from Valeria Manferto de Fabianis: "A Matter of style - Intimate portraits of 10 women who changed fashion"

The long black Givenchy evening dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". A real classic that might also work for a short person.

And I don't even have to search a lot for a pattern, nor do I have to draft the pattern myself. There was a  quite similar pattern in the Burdastyle magazine 8/2010:

Photo: http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/082010-dress-with-bow-in-back

It is quite similar at the back, although not totally the same, but I have to say that I like it a bit better with the bowy thing in the back.

I made some alterations to the pattern before even making the muslin: I altered the front neckline to be a bit more boat neck like, and instead of the Burda skirt I made my own, long skirt, basically from two rectangles that are gathered at the waistline. And I shortened the bodice so that the skirt sits right at the waistline instead of 2 cm below.

This is how the muslin came out (already worn with high heels):

The front neckline is gaping (it usually does, no surprise here), and the bodice is a bit too long.
Here it is after pinning out the excess fabric:

Yes, I am really that short waisted! The neckline looks better, at least at my left side. There isn't anyone to help me with fitting, so the pinned out lines are often crooked. This is also the reason why I put a zipper in all my muslins.

This is the muslin seen from the back. You can see that I left the bottom of the skirt open to make a vent in the real dress, which the original movie dress doesn't have. I just think it might be easier for walking or climbing into a car.

I also decided to bone the bodice, because I wanted to try boning since a while and because I think it might help with getting a nice and snug bodice without wrinkling, but of course I know that boning isn't essential in a dress like this. To check the result, sewed the pinned out alterations and added boning to the muslin. I also took out a bit of the fulness of the skirt in the front, and took in at the side seams to have it tapering down.

So, that's it. I am okay with this, as I think it is the closest to the original I can get, as of course Audrey Hepburn was a very slim person, and not a short and stocky one like me. But I think that it will also look different made up in a black, sturdier fabric instead of an old bedsheet! I'm off to transfer my changes to the pattern and cutting out!