Burdastyle Flapper dress: Fabric Selection

continuing on the topic of delicate fabrics, today's post will cover fabric selection for my flapper dress. I am making it as a part of my Burdastyle Couture Challenge series in June.

I settled for the combination of navy-color silks:

• crepe-de-chine for the underdress fashion fabric
• charmeuse for the underdress underlining
• chiffon for the skirt 
• chantilly lace for the top

UNDERLINING

As I move forward with the couture challenge, I am really glad to notice that I am slowly developing some kind of intuitive confidence with regard to the choices I make. And so, this time I was sure I needed to use silk charmeuse to underline the crepe-de-chine underdress. Don't ask me why... Or actually, I can explain it. Silk organza - the workhorse of underlining - was too stiff for this project. I could imagine it for a full skirt, or more fitted piece (depends), but here I wanted soft and sumptuous drape, with some weight to it, similar to 3-ply silk... I am glad Susan Khalje (who very generously acts as a mentor of this self-imposed couture undertaking on Burdastyle) approved of it.

"Charmeuse would be lovely as an underlining, and it can almost serve as a lining as well.  Organza would be too stiff - too unlike the charmeuse in drape and movement." 

LINING

As you can see I haven't mentioned lining. And even though I initially considered to use lining for this dress, I was not sure. Somehow, it seemed to me that the dress will have too many layers for no obvious reason. Susan confirmed this doubt and suggested not to use lining as well.

"I think the crepe de chine and charmeuse would be enough, unless for some reason you want things to be heavier, in which case you could always use the matte side of a heavy charmeuse instead of crepe de chine,  but I think that would be too much.  It's a light dress."

CHIFFON ON A BUDGET

Selecting chiffon turned out to be more challenging than I initially thought. I bought crepe-de-chine and charmeuse at Mood Fabrics. But I could not get chiffon that would be lustrous enough to match the silks on the underdress and the lace on the top. All navy chiffons I checked were in a way 'milky', somehow not quite as transparent as I wanted them to be. Maybe I was too picky, but I decided to try elsewhere as well. So, at B&J I found two types of chiffon, Korean (similar to Mood's selection) and French (twice the price of the Korean). But, readers, you should see that French chiffon - it is just perfect - lustrous, bright, transparent, deep - you name it. I did splurge on French chiffon, readers. There was too much difference between the two to hesitate. The morale of the story, shop with all the fabrics you use for the project and compare. Never settle for the first best thing.

LACE

Now, since I splurged on chiffon, I decided to be super frugal with the lace. The magazine suggests purchasing 1.5m (1.6 yard) of 90cm - wide (appr. a yard) of lace. Of course, I did want to get a good French Chantilly lace for this project, but 1.5 meters was just out of question. 


I could only get half the length with the money left for the dress, so I had to think where I can save lace. I needed scallops on the hem only, because the armholes and the neckline are going to be treated with matching organza bias tape. The navy lace that B&J had, is 120cm wide (appr. 47"), and has scallops on both sides, so I can position the pattern pieces on 'crossgrain' to be able to make use of it. The only problem was the width of the lace, as I needed additional 20 cm to accommodate the finished length of the top. 


The answer was piecing at the top portions of the lace top, the last 10cm between the neckline and the armhole. I will need only four small pieces of lace which I will invisibly attach following the pattern and using tiny fell stitches. Bias binding will give the top additional support to compensate for the loss of the lace strength where it is pieced.  Yes, it is extra work, but is it worth the money I saved - absolutely! And, remember, I got that gorgeous chiffon, so...

The making of the Burdastyle Panel Dress

Dear readers, one of the projects I was working on in the last couple of weeks was the Burdastyle Panel dress, and so, here it is.

I guest blogged about it on Burdastyle, and if you check out my planning post and the finished dress report you will find some tips and techniques you may want to use in your projects as well.
It is a couture version of the dress, but I don't claim that it is the only way to make it - I made decisions I thought were right for this particular project. If you have questions why I did something the way I did, please ask - I will be happy to explain. And do suggest a different way to handle things I would love to know how you do it!

One of the readers asked me about seam finishes - here:

The question was: "When you clip the seam allowances to allow for curves, do you always round them?"

There are two reasons why I round seam allowances:

• It is easier to catch stitch around the clipped corners if they are rounded and not sharp. 
• The seam lies really flat and looks neat. 

This is the larger image of the stitched curve. I must admit I got carried away with the curves, but you get the idea, right? 

I made it following Susan Khalje's great tips on stitching curved seams:

• I recommend staystitching both sides of the curved seams, and then clipping any U-shaped (concave) curves, to allow you to fan them out and shape them to the corresponding seamline (the convex curves). The staystitching will help keep the seamlines from getting out of shape. Handle them carefully – with all of those curves and varying degrees of off-grain seamlines, you don’t want any distortion! 
• Give yourself lots of matchpoints, every inch or two, just to make sure everything lines up as it should. 
• Baste the curved seams, of course – basting will hold them better than any amount of pins, plus you’ll be able to use both hands to control the fabric as you stitch, without having to constantly stop to take out pins as you go along.
• Once you’re happy with stitching and take out the basting, then you can press the seams carefully and catch stitch the seam allowances to the underlining.

If you wonder, I did put a lot of matchpoints in muslin stage and transferred them over to the linen pieces.

Linen behaved relatively well, I must say, but I could see that without match points the panels would have stretched and shifted. 

On this image, besides match points on the muslin, you can actually see how I used the shell muslin to cut front lining. Burdastyle didn't recommend using lining, which I thought was strange because linen can be relatively sheer. So, I did make lining, matching the front panel seams as long as they lied flat, with darts forming above the bust point.  This saved a lot of time and worked beautifully - no curved panel on the lining, just two darts. 

That's it for the dress. Again, there are many images on Burdastyle, so check out the two posts - the links are at the beginning of this post. And, by the way, I did enter this dress for the PatternReview Natural Fiber Contest, go check it out - there are quite a few lovely creations in the contest gallery!

Have you made anything from the recent Burdastyle releases, magazine or website? Please, share your projects here if you did!

Couture Wardrobe Challenge, May: Let's celebrate curves!

Sewing has kept me very busy recently despite the lack of posts here. A planning post for this dress (Burdastyle Magazine, May 2012) is up on their page, and I hope to finish the dress on Monday. 

If you like this style and want to learn or practice couture techniques, do check it out. Susan [Khalje] shared a few great tips on sewing curved seams and using lining. If you know the basics, you will be all set up to do it.

Otherwise, I do update my Facebook page on daily basis, with favourite links, excellent tutorials from friends, and inspiration...

Is anyone making this Burdastyle dress? Let me know, I would love to feature it here, on my blog and on my Facebook page! 

My Couture Challenge: the first project completed!

I keep on talking about my Couture Wardrobe Challenge with BurdaStyle, but have never posted any details about it here, on my blog. I have been guest blogging for BurdaStyle for a while now, mostly covering couture-related topics, and one day, while we were discussing upcoming posts, the idea of creating a small couture wardrobe based on BurdaStyle patterns was born. One style a month, from the most current issue! If you have been following my blog for a while you will know that I am a Burdastyle fan, and have been for looong time. So, it was time I start using all those pattern magazines piling on shelves.

AND, I was very happy that Susan Khalje agreed to be a couture mentor in this project, giving me a few tips on how to handle some challenging parts of each project. These tips are published in a preview post, including some details on planning, fitting and materials. The final garment, as well as an overview of techniques used to complete it, is featured three weeks later.

Image: Emmy Rengfors, Burdastyle

The April project was based on a skirt and a blouse from BurdaStyle Bella Donna feature. Couture techniques in this first post include faced waistband boning and working with Chantilly lace - here are some details (also featured in my Burdastyle blog):

It took me more time than anticipated and so, this time, I have already started working on my May project. Meanwhile the finished April project, including detail shots and techniques, has just been posted on Burdastyle Blog.

BUT before you head over to BurdaStyle to check out the post, I wanted to tell you that I got couple of tutorials and some extras from this first project lined up for you, readers! So, check in the next few days for a detailed how-to and couture tips!!! And thanks for all your support!