WHEN FABRIC & DESIGN
MAKE THE PERFECT BLUE DRESS
I’ve been waiting for the perfect fabric to sew up this design for a long long time, so when I got the familiar email from my favourite and only online fabric store & saw this fabric, it felt like the stars had aligned.
I’d seen this design online (I can’t remember the designer) and saved it in my folder on Pintrest of future sewing for dream closet (you all know that folder? We all have one right? LOL).
In the inspiration picture, the fabric is polka dots but I’m not a fan of polka dots especially huge dots so this my Minerva find was just perfect.
A lot of things attracted me to this dress. First off, the back keyhole design looked so elegant. I didn’t have anything like that in my wardrobe, and I’d certainly never sewn anything like it before, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
For the front, I liked the three-piece with dart feature, I feel like it gives more room for a better fit. Also, the piping detail, another first, and we know how I feel about challenges with this project right? LOL
I also was very drawn to using the reverse side of a fabric for the ultimate fun in contrast.
It’s a blue and silver metallic brocade fabric, to me it feels lightweight, not too stiff like it was meant to hold it’s shape or anything like that. It does have some movement to it, but it’s nothing smooth, fluid, or silky, in short, this is not a silk brocade.
The fabric is not too tightly woven so to say it frays would be an understatement lol. I don’t know if it’s just this fabric in particular or brocades in general because this is my first time working with brocade.
But, yeah, treat your ends as soon as you cut, if not you’ll see your cut pieces disappear right before your eyes.
And by treat, I mean weave them closed. One line of zig zag stitches won't cut it either, look for other weaving stitches on your machine or at the very least two lines of zig zag stitches.
For the actual sewing, I used a size 9 needle, you can use a size 10 max, anything else will just poke holes in your project. I’d also recommend using a lightweight thread so that your project looks seamless.
I don’t know if any of you reinforce your closures with fusible interfacing, but it’s a good idea not to skip them with this fabric because it’s so light and frays so easily, you need the extra reinforcements of the fusible interfacing for such high use areas.
I decide on using black for the piping instead of blue or silver because I wanted that detail to stand out the most and not get drowned in the pattern of the fabric.
Aside from creating/drafting my pattern myself, this was pretty easy to sew. Like I said before, it’s not a silky fabric, so, there was no slipping & sliding all over the place. The fabric held its peace and I sewed on on my merry way.
For anyone interested in giving this design a go I’ll be sure to tag the patterns I feel will help you make a good effort of it.
To make the piping detail, it’s easy to insert those in the lines of the waistband of the dress and you can cut the skirt port into two parts with a center seam and add some piping there.
I did however get stuck on finding patterns for the back design feature of this dress. Tell me, is it possible that there are no sewing patterns with back keyhole designs in the whole home sewing industry???
I absolutely refuse to believe this, I'm probably not doing a good job searching. I'll tell you what I found though, little girls patterns with keyhole design. Like, are keyhole patterns only for kids' dresses now? When and how have I missed this LOL.
Anyways, I found two little girls' patterns. One is called the “ Daisy Dress by Peony Patterns” and the other I’ll also tag here, in case some of you are pattern modification ninjas and can modify a kids pattern into an adult one, GOOD LUCK.
If anyone knows of other patterns that can help anyone attempt this dress please put them in the comments, THANK YOU.
That’s mostly it about this lovely fabric and dress, I’ve taken it out for several spins since I made it and everyone loves it.
But I want to know if you guys think I made a decent copy of my inspiration dress
#brocadefabric #bluefabric #silverfabric #simplicitypatterns #sewinginspiration #blue #silver #bluedress #silverdress #memade #brocadefabrics
MAKE THE PERFECT BLUE DRESS
I’ve been waiting for the perfect fabric to sew up this design for a long long time, so when I got the familiar email from my favourite and only online fabric store & saw this fabric, it felt like the stars had aligned.
I’d seen this design online (I can’t remember the designer) and saved it in my folder on Pintrest of future sewing for dream closet (you all know that folder? We all have one right? LOL).
In the inspiration picture, the fabric is polka dots but I’m not a fan of polka dots especially huge dots so this my Minerva find was just perfect.
A lot of things attracted me to this dress. First off, the back keyhole design looked so elegant. I didn’t have anything like that in my wardrobe, and I’d certainly never sewn anything like it before, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
For the front, I liked the three-piece with dart feature, I feel like it gives more room for a better fit. Also, the piping detail, another first, and we know how I feel about challenges with this project right? LOL
I also was very drawn to using the reverse side of a fabric for the ultimate fun in contrast.
It’s a blue and silver metallic brocade fabric, to me it feels lightweight, not too stiff like it was meant to hold it’s shape or anything like that. It does have some movement to it, but it’s nothing smooth, fluid, or silky, in short, this is not a silk brocade.
The fabric is not too tightly woven so to say it frays would be an understatement lol. I don’t know if it’s just this fabric in particular or brocades in general because this is my first time working with brocade.
But, yeah, treat your ends as soon as you cut, if not you’ll see your cut pieces disappear right before your eyes.
And by treat, I mean weave them closed. One line of zig zag stitches won't cut it either, look for other weaving stitches on your machine or at the very least two lines of zig zag stitches.
For the actual sewing, I used a size 9 needle, you can use a size 10 max, anything else will just poke holes in your project. I’d also recommend using a lightweight thread so that your project looks seamless.
I don’t know if any of you reinforce your closures with fusible interfacing, but it’s a good idea not to skip them with this fabric because it’s so light and frays so easily, you need the extra reinforcements of the fusible interfacing for such high use areas.
I decide on using black for the piping instead of blue or silver because I wanted that detail to stand out the most and not get drowned in the pattern of the fabric.
Aside from creating/drafting my pattern myself, this was pretty easy to sew. Like I said before, it’s not a silky fabric, so, there was no slipping & sliding all over the place. The fabric held its peace and I sewed on on my merry way.
For anyone interested in giving this design a go I’ll be sure to tag the patterns I feel will help you make a good effort of it.
To make the piping detail, it’s easy to insert those in the lines of the waistband of the dress and you can cut the skirt port into two parts with a center seam and add some piping there.
I did however get stuck on finding patterns for the back design feature of this dress. Tell me, is it possible that there are no sewing patterns with back keyhole designs in the whole home sewing industry???
I absolutely refuse to believe this, I'm probably not doing a good job searching. I'll tell you what I found though, little girls patterns with keyhole design. Like, are keyhole patterns only for kids' dresses now? When and how have I missed this LOL.
Anyways, I found two little girls' patterns. One is called the “ Daisy Dress by Peony Patterns” and the other I’ll also tag here, in case some of you are pattern modification ninjas and can modify a kids pattern into an adult one, GOOD LUCK.
If anyone knows of other patterns that can help anyone attempt this dress please put them in the comments, THANK YOU.
That’s mostly it about this lovely fabric and dress, I’ve taken it out for several spins since I made it and everyone loves it.
But I want to know if you guys think I made a decent copy of my inspiration dress
#brocadefabric #bluefabric #silverfabric #simplicitypatterns #sewinginspiration #blue #silver #bluedress #silverdress #memade #brocadefabrics