Floral Brocade

Once again, thank you to Longan Craft for sending me this brocade fabric and for giving me the excuse to finally cut into Vogue 1773!

I quite enjoyed the process of sewing this together.  And I rue the day that Vogue decided to part ways with the designer and discontinue all of the Donna Karan and DKNY patterns.  Why did they do that?!  

I am fairly certain that this particular design was not intended for a brocade fabric, but the classic lines work just fine, even with my thicker fabric choice. 

One thing to note about the pattern drafting is that the pattern envelope photography suggests that the dress is going to be ankle length on a model who is presumably taller than the average person.  I held up the pattern tissue to my body before cutting the skirt pieces out and decided to give myself an extra inch of length, plus the 1/2" that I added to the torso length of the bodice.  So if you really want an ankle or full length skirt, you may want to give yourself some extra fabric to play with.  The other possibility is that the drapey fabric choice used for the photography stretched out a bit in length and/or drapes differently on the body so that the hemline sits a bit lower than my choice of a stable brocade.

The other alteration to the shoulder width (I narrowed it slightly) turned out for the best.  I could have taken it in a smidge more, but I think the change was significant enough to make a difference.

It's a classic silhouette - the fabric choice just makes it look a bit more formal than it may have originally been intended, which is fine with me!

My only real "complaint" if I had to choose one would be the side zipper.  I always extend the length of the zipper slightly to make it easier to get in and out of a garment, and that, paired with the wide neckline opening means this particular garment is not nearly as annoying to wiggle in and out of.  But I am never going to be a massive fan of the closure.  That being said, I do understand why some designs choose to place the opening at the side as a design choice.

I would not be opposed to sewing another version in another fabric.  The pattern suggests a light wool crepe, and it would be interesting to see how a very different textile choice would change the look and feel of the design. 

This project has made me want to rummage around in some of my late 90s patterns, some of which I do not remember with fondness . . . I wonder if my opinion would change if I take a fresh look at them . . .

Because some of those floral dresses that Elaine was always wearing on Seinfeld were pretty cute, as I recall.

And I do have a bunch of rayon cuts that I purchased a couple of years ago that might be perfect for the job.

Or do I get back to that wool dress that is going to no longer be seasonally appropriate if I wait too much longer to finish it . . .

Dress:  Made by me, Vogue 1773
Boots:  Calvin Klein "Dawna"

[The brocade fabric for this project was gifted by Longan Craft.]

Golden Brocade

I found this older, dare I say "vintage," DKNY design (Vogue 1773) at a pattern exchange a few years ago.  And I never put it away because I really wanted to try View C.  Once it's out of sight, I have a tendency to get distracted by other projects, and that particular pattern gets further and further buried under the massive mental list of ideas that I want to try.

Late last year I was contacted by Longan Craft about trying some of their fabric, and after perusing the website, I immediately thought that one of their brocades would be perfect for the DKNY design.

Now, if you've been around these parts for any length of time, you know that I am not a fan of polyester fabrics.  But I was tempted by the beautiful florals, and I decided to take a chance.

Lucky for me, this particular brocade actually pressed quite well (with the help of a press cloth).  Yes, it does have a tendency to fray, along with every other brocade I have ever come across (silk, poly, or other fiber), but a pair of pinking shears and careful handling solved that.

I did make a few minor fitting adjustments to the pattern as I usually do, but the main alteration to the design was to drop a full lining into the dress where the pattern instructions have only the small midriff front and back lined.  This was to give the fabric a bit of added weight, to cover all those pesky raw edges, and also to keep any itchy fibers away from the body.  Metallic fibers are not usually very soft!

I also substituted an invisible zipper which could have gone horribly wrong, but the sewing gods were kind to me, and this one went in without too much trouble.

Because the pattern was not drafted for a full lining, I did spend a bit of time figuring out the best way to go about adding one.  I also messed with the neckline since it was drafted with a cut-in-one facing, and I knew that I didn't want to use that method.  With that decision made, I knew that I wanted to keep the bodice lining separate from the lower portion of the skirt and midriff lining for the time being.

I don't have an issue with hand basting or sewing, so I knew that placing the lining into the dress would be easy enough to do even after stitching my newly drafted neckline facing into place.

In the end, I stitched the sleeve lining to the bodice front and back lining, and then hand stitching those pieces into place on the dress.  This allowed me to add the facing to the neckline almost immediately, which didn't give that v-neck a chance to stretch.

And the lower raw edges of the facing would then get covered by the skirt and midriff lining.

That lining also allowed for the facing to be stitched into place without being visible from the right side of the garment, which is always nice.

I didn't get any photos, but I also tacked the waist seam of the lining to the waist seam of the actual dress, therefore ensuring that the lining does not separate from that part of the dress and keeps the skirt lining from twisting during wear.

The hem and the lining hem were hemmed independently from one another.

And to make sure that the lining does not hang below the brocade, I crocheted thread tacks for each of the vertical seamlines on the skirt.

I tried something a bit different from my standard way of applying thread tacks this time around, and I think it worked nicely.  I used a thicker thread, crocheted a small length of that thread, leaving a tail at either end, and then stitched one end to the dress seamline and the other to the lining.

I think this is easier than trying to knot around a double loop of thread connecting the two layers which is what I usually end up doing.

And I really can't believe how well behaved this invisible zipper was.  Will it make me a convert to this type of zipper?  Not likely, but I am definitely relieved that I didn't have to seam rip anything on this fabric!

The silhouette of the design is great, which does not surprise me considering this is a Donna Karan design.  

And I love the way it turned out in a metallic brocade, which may not have been the original intent of the design, but I think the structured fabric works very well with that flared skirt silhouette!

[The brocade fabric for this project was gifted by Longan Craft.]