flower power

Well guys, spring has definitely sprung around these parts! And I for one could not be happier about it! This week also marks the end of what was a really busy couple of months for me at work, and I finally seem to have shaken off the respiratory infection that had been plaguing me (thanks antibiotics!) Yay!! So all in all, we're in high spirits around these parts!

What with the warming weather and more free time to actually enjoy it, I seem to have one thing and one thing only on my mind - silk dresses. Making them. Wearing them. Living in them for the next nine months... That and long, lazy, bike rides. Preferably paired together. At sunset. Sigh... paints quite a picture, doesn't it?

For this months Mood Sewing Network make I was irresistibly drawn to this gorgeous floral crepe de chine from Mood Fabrics online. Silk crepe de chine is one of my all-time favorite fabrics to sew with, and to wear. It has a bit more 'grip' than many of it's slippery silk counterparts, making it easy to handle, but it still has that lovely, fluid drape that you want from lighter weight silks.  And it's breathable, which is an absolute must in my hot and humid climate.

I absolutely adored the floral print of this fabric! It's so bright and playful, it made me instantly happy! I find the color palette to be sort of unusual and unexpected (magenta and poppy red, royal purple and inky black, viridian green and chartreuse... all on a soft, off-white background). It also reminded me a bit of vintage prints, but I couldn't decide what decade - 30's? 40's? 70's?? Maybe 70's-does-40's? (The consensus on the Mood blog was 70's-does-40's, which incidentally, is one of my favorite time period mash-ups!)  I don't normally go for a vintage look, but there was something so timelessly feminine about this print that was just calling me.

I thought it would be nice to pair this fabric with a pattern that also had a bit of a vintage vibe, without going totally overt, and felt like By Hand London's Anna dress totally fit the bill. I love this pattern - it's like all the best parts of being a woman rolled into one dress! This is my second time making the Anna dress (here's my first). For this version I opted for the v-neck and the shorter hem. However, rather than just chopping the pattern off at the knees, I kept the hem width of the maxi-version and adjusted the skirt panel pieces to compensate. This way I maintained maximum skirt swing-y-ness (very important for those warm breezes!)

Trust me on this one, this pattern hack sounds way more complicated than it actually was. I'm not saying that what I did was the right way to go about this - but, hell, it worked. Which is really all I care about. What I did was lay tracing paper over the skirt panel pieces, trace off the waist seam and grainline, and make a mark along the grainline the length that I wanted my new skirt pieces to be (I did 27 inches). Then I slid the tracing paper down, along the grainline, until my new hem mark lined up with the original maxi hem line, traced the maxi hem line and connected that to the waist seam, ignoring the original side seams. Done and done! 

One of the reasons I went with this silhouette and skirt length is because it's reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite handmade dresses, my purple linen Simplicity 1880. I love that dress. It's the dress I grab when I want to look pretty, and it's been my go-to dress for such a variety of occasions - weddings, parties, holidays, work events, and just regular old work days. That dress is a work horse. So I felt like it was time that I listen to my own closet and try to get more dresses like that in there! As I was sewing this dress up I could tell that it was definitely going to be giving my purple dress a run for it's money as my new go-to dress! I've already worn it to an opening at my gallery this past weekend and it was, as I suspected, perfect. It took me all the way through prepping for the opening (which entails buying assloads of beer, wine and ice, lugging it around and filling coolers, climbing up ladders to adjust lights, cleaning, hauling trash, etc. etc. etc...) to the opening itself, where I'm greeting people, serving wine, making chit-chat, and generally playing hostess. And you know what, I got so many compliments on this dress! She's a winner!!

I reinforced the v-neck with silk organza strips, which helped a little with gape-age, however there is still more gape than I would like. Perhaps I should have eased the v-neck to the silk organza a bit? Ah well - ya live, ya learn.

I also lined the entire dress with silk habotai, because the floral fabric was ever-so-slightly sheer. Silk habotai (or china silk) is a wonderful lining fabric, especially if you're like me and like to keep your silk dresses silky - inside and out! The habotai I used was from my stash, but Mood has an awesome collection online in, like, every color imaginable. And I don't know about the fabric stores where you live, but silk habotai at my local fabric store is sooo much more expensive than what they sell it for at Mood - that's including shipping, and there is much less variety. But probably the most economical source for silk habotai (and, really, any silk fabric) is Dharma Trading. Of course everything there comes in either white or black, but if you feel like getting crafty with some dye, you can make it any color your heart desires!

And because I always like to learn new tricks, even on patterns that I've made before, I decided to try my hand at using my machine's blind hem foot for the floral silk. Can you believe I've never used that little gadget before?! That's one of the reasons I love sewing - there's always something new to learn! I'm not totally sure if this type of hem was ideal for this type of skirt and fabric, but eh... it worked (moral of this post). Anyway, I love how clean the hem turned out, and it saved me so much more time than if I had hand-picked it myself. For the skirt lining I just used my serger's rolled hem function. I always feel like I'm cheating when I do this, but it's just so quick and easy, it's hard to resist!

Let's talk real quick about caring for silk garments. I feel like this is something (or maybe one of many things?) that always intimidates people from buying, sewing and wearing silk. You guys may have noticed that I sew with silk a lot, and, as I said, silk crepe de chine is my number one favorite fabric of all time. I wouldn't be sewing all these silk clothes if I wasn't actually wearing them, and with wearing your clothes, comes washing your clothes (unless, of course, that's not your thing, in which case, you do you...) For the record - I never go to the dry cleaners. I can't afford it, and I don't like all the icky chemicals. I wash all my silks at home. In the washing machine. The key is to prewash your silks the same way you intend to care for the finished garment. So I usually wash on cold and hang dry. Occasionally I'll throw my silk in the dryer (I did that for the habotai lining of this garment) and it works out just fine, but typically I won't continue to care for my finished silk garment this way. Although every so often one of my silkies accidentally ends up in the dryer, and it usually fares okay. In her recent post about silk jersey, Lauren noted that the color and sheen can dull a bit when you wash and dry your silks. This definitely can happen, though it's not too dramatic, and in my experience, this mostly occurs in the dryer, which is why I usually hang dry. But I'm all for throwing your silks in the dryer if that's more convenient for you, just make sure to do that when you prewash too!

And for any of you non-sewers out there, this is also how I care for store bought silk clothes as well - machine wash cold and hang dry. Silk is an amazing fiber, and not nearly as delicate as people think.

Well, there you have it! I can't wait to wear this dress on the balmy summer nights that I know are right around the corner! What sort of fabrics have you thinking of warm weather?

last gasp

I want to thank you all, so much, for your kind words on my last fabric post! I'm having such a wonderful time experimenting with dyes and seeing where I can push them and how I might make them my own, and it's been such a joy getting to share that process with you! And you've certainly given me a ton to think about in terms of where all this fabric dyeing might lead...

I also have to acknowledge all the crazy good suggestions you guys had for what this fabric should become! You guys seriously have amazing vision, and I wish I could have taken every. single. one of your suggestions (wouldn't that have been an awesome post!?) 

But, as you can see, I ended up sticking to the original plan and making an Anna.  One of the main reasons for this being that Heather Lou sent me this pattern as part of our hand-dyed-silk-maxi-dress-love-fest earlier this summer, and it just seemed to complete the karmic circle of good-feelings too perfectly to use this pattern with this fabric. And if there is one thing I believe in, it's karmic circles. And silk. Yes, I am a fervent member of the Church of Karma & Silk... any other believers out there?

I also really wanted to make my Anna before our weather turned too cold for me to enjoy it, because if ever there was a pattern for Summer 2013, I believe it is the Anna.  This pattern just feels so very now (yes, I realize that for most of you in the northern hemi summer is already a distant memory, clouded over by wafts of pumpkin spice everything, but in my little corner of the world I'm still enjoying the last few gasps of warmish temps before fall finally decides to settle on us). When I was in NYC I had the wonderful privilege of getting to eyeball not one, not two, but five Anna's in the course of three days! That, my friends, is an excellent example of a pattern going viral.  And, yeah, I wanted in. So consider this my late entry onto the Anna train.

And, boyohboyohboy am I glad I boarded that train! I was actually nervous about this dress - if you can believe it.  I worried that the tummy-hugging silhouette wouldn't be particularly flattering on me, since I generally try to drape myself in volume around those middle parts. I actually made two muslins of the bodice before I cut into my silk, something I haven't done in quite awhile.  I couldn't quite make my mind up between two sizes - a US6 or a US8.  Both, technically, fit. And looked fine. But the 6... well... it left no one in doubt about where I store my chicken and waffles ifyaknowwhati'msayin... So I went with the 8, and I'm very pleased that I did.  I think the dress is still miraculously flattering and feminine and sexy while still allowing me to breathe and, ya know, have organs. 

So let's talk about some of the nitty-gritty, shall we? One of the benefits of being the last person in the blogosphere to make a pattern is that you get to learn from everyone else's experience.  So even before I made my muslins I was aware that this pattern had some issues with gaping at the back neck, and I was able to use Ginger's clever little adjustment to take out excess fabric there (though the back neck still gapes a bit if I stand up 'yoga-straight'...) I also took Oona's advice and skipped the pattern facings and instead used a bias strip facing to finish the neckline.  I had also heard everyone bemoan the miles of french seams and hand finishing that this dress called for. I heard it. And I chose to ignore it. Instead I serged my edges (I know... such a rebel) and....!!! Get this... I topstitched my thigh-split! Say What?!?! It's true. And before you all come at me with pitchforks and buckets of tar, lemme just say: It. Works. Fine. I would especially recommend this if you are making your Anna out of a solid colored fabric. Total time saver. Perhaps not the invisible finish some might desire, but dudes, I finished this dress in a day. 

Cue the horrible construction shots in heinous indoor lighting... 

The one area where I did go a bit overboard on was the zipper.  I hate the feel of zipper tape against my skin, so I debated drafting a facing for the back opening, but I felt like that would really only work neatly if I included all the facings, and I had already decided to go the bias route. So instead I cut strips of my silk and bound the zipper tape in those before I inserted it into the dress. Now, no scratchy zipper tape ruining the delicious feeling of all that silk against my skin! As for my invisible zipper experience as a whole? I have no complaints. Inserting zippers into super lightweight fabrics like this silk is always a bit funky. But I interfaced the seam allowances around the zipper and it went in like a charm, and, I think, looks just about as neat and clean as can be expected.

Nick took these pictures for me, which is always a bit of an adventure.  I usually end up with some absolutely stunning shots, and then I get some funny ones like the shot above. I can only assume he was getting bored with my posing and preening and the distraction of a really big boat was just too tempting! (P.S. Thank you, Nick! You're such a good sport! I love you!) 

Well, since finishing this dress I've already worn it to two events and plan to wear it to another this week. It's actually pretty amazing how this dress can go super fancy or more daytime-casual with just the slightest change of shoes and accessories. Love it! But now I think it's time for me to focus on some fall weather sewing... sigh. It's time. Goodbye summer!

xx