Sewing Fine Silk on a Deadline is Genius

... Or maybe not.

I went to a wedding some time ago. It had been a while since I had been to a real fancy event so I thought a new dress was in order. I had this lovely light silk in my stash that I meant to use for the Nicola dress by Victory Patterns, and thought the best time to make a new pattern in a fabric you've never worked with before was a week before the event. Duh!

It turned out ok! I was slightly terrified to cut into this fabric, it's not super shifty but very fine. I got it at a Dries Van Noten stock sale about a year ago, and it had been sitting in my stash until I found the perfect pattern.

I made a bodice toile and found I had to take out some length. The neckline is super deep on me but I opted to wear a cami underneath instead of more complicated wrap dress alteration shenanigans. There are some weird drag lines but it doesn't really bother me.

I lined the entire dress in another silk from my stash, instead of just lining the skirt and using facings on the body, like the pattern suggested. This made it possible to cut the entire thing from two metres, and the lining gave the bodice some, uh, body and opacity. I didn't line the sleeves and they are as fluttery as ever.

Hah! My boyfriend found this Pinocchio head near his parents' place and called me because we just had to take pictures there, so I got my ass over there as soon as I could. This is just to explain the unwashed, messy hair.

Applying the binding to the sleeves was fiddly, and I chose to handstitch it down with an invisible hem instead of topstitching. It's not entirely invisible, but nice enough! The sleeves are very floaty and sort of make me feel like a fairy.

Yes  Sherlock, thank you for your input.

The pattern fit me slightly loosely around the waist, but I didn't want to make it too tight since the silk is so fine I didn't want to risk straining it too much. Instead I made sure I had one long strip of fabric left and made a tie belt.

Were you guys waiting for a silly face? Because here is one. I have another one where my face looks like it's melting but I'll save it for Halloween.

Sewing this was pretty straightforward, it was the first Victory pattern I tried and the instructions were clear enough. I got a bit stressed about the omg silk thing but it helped that this wasn't the hardest silk ever. My machine handled it really well, no sudden chewing of fabric!

Aah scary thing to pose next to!

I'm still not entirely sure if this dress is flattering on me, so I don't know if I'd make it again. Maybe in a lightly less drapey fabric?