I made this dress for my work Chirstmas party - I was looking for something I'd feel comfortable in, in other words it had to be not too low cut, have sleeves and be knee length. I was really pleased when I saw this dress, as it seemed to be a good style - cocktail dress rather than evening dress which is what I wanted.
The fabric I used was a pink/purple peach skin fabric, very thin and drapey, which I had in my stash. It wa actually a nightmare to sew, especially trying to get those structured pleats across the waist. but it does feel divine! I wanted to work with that light drapey feel, so I decidde to use unfinished bias strips for the neck and sleeve ruffles, rather than folding in half , stitching and turning right way out as suggested by the pattern. The bias but meant that the edges didn't fray, just softened a little from the cut edge. I was really pleased with the result of this.
In order to decorate the sleeves, I first traced the pattern for the swirls onto tearable stabiliser (the type you use with an embroidery machine). I then pinned this to the wrong side of the sleeve piece around the edges and stitched over the design in coordinating thread, using the embroidery foot for my machine and with the feed dogs dropped. I was absolutely amazed by how much control I had doing this on my new machine, so much better than the unsuccessful attempt I had with my old machine and a generic foot which I'm still not convinced really fit.
Once I'd stitched the whole pattern, I tore off the stabiliser to leave the stitched pattern, and sewed the strips over these lines. I didn't pin first but stitched slowly down the center of the strip pulling it to the side where required. For some of the tighter u-bends I stopped with the needle in the fabric to position the fabric correctly, but most of the time I just went slowly but continuously.When I was reading reviews of this pattern a lot of people said they spent 12 hours hand sewing this part, so I wanted to let you know it is possible to do by machine! I didn;t get it spot on all the time, but the ruffles are so close together and guide stitching was covered up.
Overall pretty pleased with this dress! I think if I made it again, I would alter the pattern a little first, to extend the neckline higher up. It was a little low for me, and its critical for fit that thewaist pleats fall in the right place, or you end up with weird creases falling right on the point of your boob! I also found the front neckline was too wide, possibly because I still had it too high up? I dealt with this by pulling up the piping along this edge.
The fabric I used was a pink/purple peach skin fabric, very thin and drapey, which I had in my stash. It wa actually a nightmare to sew, especially trying to get those structured pleats across the waist. but it does feel divine! I wanted to work with that light drapey feel, so I decidde to use unfinished bias strips for the neck and sleeve ruffles, rather than folding in half , stitching and turning right way out as suggested by the pattern. The bias but meant that the edges didn't fray, just softened a little from the cut edge. I was really pleased with the result of this.
In order to decorate the sleeves, I first traced the pattern for the swirls onto tearable stabiliser (the type you use with an embroidery machine). I then pinned this to the wrong side of the sleeve piece around the edges and stitched over the design in coordinating thread, using the embroidery foot for my machine and with the feed dogs dropped. I was absolutely amazed by how much control I had doing this on my new machine, so much better than the unsuccessful attempt I had with my old machine and a generic foot which I'm still not convinced really fit.
Once I'd stitched the whole pattern, I tore off the stabiliser to leave the stitched pattern, and sewed the strips over these lines. I didn't pin first but stitched slowly down the center of the strip pulling it to the side where required. For some of the tighter u-bends I stopped with the needle in the fabric to position the fabric correctly, but most of the time I just went slowly but continuously.When I was reading reviews of this pattern a lot of people said they spent 12 hours hand sewing this part, so I wanted to let you know it is possible to do by machine! I didn;t get it spot on all the time, but the ruffles are so close together and guide stitching was covered up.
Overall pretty pleased with this dress! I think if I made it again, I would alter the pattern a little first, to extend the neckline higher up. It was a little low for me, and its critical for fit that thewaist pleats fall in the right place, or you end up with weird creases falling right on the point of your boob! I also found the front neckline was too wide, possibly because I still had it too high up? I dealt with this by pulling up the piping along this edge.
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