The Gia Bias Cut Slip Dress

I blame Kate Moss. Truly, she is the one to hold responsible – in her late 90s heyday, she was always hanging out with all the cool people in all the cool places. And what was she wearing? Slip dresses, that’s what! Imbuing them with her own particular brand of sexy allure, she made the simple slip dress the most glamourous thing you could hope to wear, and planted a seed of slip dress desire so strong in me that 20 years down the track I still couldn’t rest easy until I had a sexy bias cut slip dress to call my own!

It took me a while to find a slip dress pattern that I was really happy with. I love design detail, so I didn’t want a really basic slip – it needed to have a point of different to check all of my perfect pattern boxes. When I found the Gia slip dress by Capsule Patterns, I knew this was the one for me! The design component that really took my fancy was the double shoulder straps, which cross over at the back. I just love the extra sporty sexy edge that it gives the dress, and the pattern instructions on making the spaghetti straps were the best and most informative that I have ever read! Worth the purchase price of the pattern for that nugget of sewing wisdom alone!

The pattern also gives you a couple of options for sewing the dress together. Because the dress is cut on the bias, the fabric stretches itself out. When you are sewing such fabric together, you need to take this into account and adjust your sewing methods accordingly. The pattern gives you two options – zig zagging the seam together rather than using a straight stitch. I tried this method out, and unfortunately my sewing machine weirdly gobbled the fabric up, causing it to double in on itself, so the quick-un-pick needed to make an appearance. I don’t think this was bad advice at all – I really do think my machine just didn’t want to play ball on the crepe de chine I was using. So I instead used her other method, which is to stretch out the fabric as you sew a straight stitch. This worked beautifully, and I am really happy with how the side seams turned out.

The fabric I used was Liberty London Kensington silk crepe de chine in shade Emerald – seriously, if I could marry fabric this would be the one I would betroth myself to! It was so luscious, and a dream to work with! The fabric has a gentle silky sheen, and feels like you are wearing liquid when you walk around in the dress! If you are looking for the perfect silky fabric for that special garment, look no further – the Liberty Kensington silk cannot be beat!

I am super happy with how this dress turned out. I made a size 10, but probably could have made an 8. The pattern comes in a dress version, and a cami, which I’m pretty keen to make next! I’m also really happy to be supporting an indie pattern company – this pattern was a real pleasure to sew from, so thank you Capsule Patterns for making such a great design! And also thank you for the inspiration, Kate – let’s go hang out in the Viper Room together in our lovely slip dresses, and party like it’s 1996!

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