Behind the Seams Dress Pt 1

When my professor Jaleh Naasz asked if I was interested in collaborating with one of the youth students from her summer classes at Isabel Azam, I almost immediately said no. Though I’m no stranger to collaborations in the fabric/patterns world, it was the first time I had ever considered being the sewist of a garment designed by someone else. I thought on it for an hour or so. Why was I thinking of saying no? Because I don’t sew dresses like that. Of course I typically don’t, but surely I could…right? But I’m busy. I’m always busy. Well yeah..soooo….? If I’m always busy, why decline an opportunity to bring joy to a young student & show them what’s possible with their designs come to life? Surely I can prioritize that over some other things? Inner voice had no rebuttal to that one.

And so, this was the beginning of my “yes”. Of the designs available, Mabel’s was my favorite. Y’all know by now I’m not shy about color or florals and this dress was the opportunity to combine both. The other thing you probably also know is that I am a 95% knit garment sewist, so tackling a custom design in woven felt like it’d present my very first challenge. While we were given creative control, we were asked to keep the design as close as possible to the image. I had close to a month from saying “yes” to garment completion date (asked on 6/30, submission date was 7/21). I also still had work releases (including one of my own patterns), a final project due in my portfolio class, and of course my usual mom/wife/life stuff to juggle, so I knew I’d have a late start. After stopping by campus and finding nothing that would work for the desired look, it wasn’t until the following week I could squeeze in some time to run to a thrift store and see what I could find. Unfortunately, because I was designing a specific garment, I didn’t find any “fabrics” that would have worked for the dress. I then remembered I had some ivory bridal satin in my stash from when I thought I’d make my own wedding dress back in 2017. That was perfect as the base! In order to bring the entire vision alive, I had to make a trip Fabrics R Us and see what I could piece together to pull it off. I decided on a lighter weight ivory charmeuse satin for the liner. When I asked the staff if they had any pink flowers, they said no (I did see royal blue, purple, gold, and white). I decided to try my luck at the sister store, Fabric Yard, and they had the fuchsia I was looking for! (Side note: a couple weeks later when thrifting an outfit for my husband, I came across these two pink dresses that I totally could have made work for the bottom of the dress, even though a different hue of pink. Whyyyy weren’t they there before?? 😩)

Even being a woven, the pattern work was surprisingly easy! Since I wasn’t assigned any specific model for the dress, I used the size 10 sloper from flat pattern class so that it would be proportionate to some average/standard body who could fit into it with minimal adjustments needed. I first measured the maximum length I could get from the floral mesh (20″) and used that to decide how long the skirt would be. In hindsight I could have added another inch or two to the skirt hem, but alas, hindsight is always so clear. I started by combining both darts at the waist on the front bodice, then closing the waist dart to create the 3″ yoke. Since there was no back image of the dress, I chose a s subtle V back, so I moved the shoulder dart into the armscye to get rid of it. After sewing up a muslin, I changed the front neckline a little. Though the sketch is high, the first muslin felt a bit too high, so I scooped it out some and brought in the back armscye a touch. There was considerable gaping at the upper back of the V, so while it was on my dress form, I pinched out a dart over to the armscye, went back to the pattern and removed it and created a new back piece. In the rush of the process, I didn’t take a pic of the gaping, but I did have a piece of the adjusted pattern over the original piece I cut to show what change happened. When I was happy with the bodice pattern, I went in for the skirt. It was very basic and nothing special. I just removed some length and brought the side seams in 1/2″ to taper slightly. Since the dress has no vent/slit, I couldn’t tighten too much so there could still be movement. P.S. Wrapping paper makes great pattern paper in a pinch and scribbling over a photo of yourself can be a good way to visualize what you’re thinking.

Now was sample time (and folx you need to sample, especially if you are sewing a project outside of your norm). I tried out needles, figured out what thread colors to use, what marking tools work best, and what iron settings to use. For my fabrics, I went with size 11 needles, regular polyester thread, and they took medium heat well with a press cloth and produced beautiful, flat seams. Even though the darts and seams look very visible here in the samples, after sewing in the lining, they weren’t so prominent. Markers bled so they were not a good choice. I used a light pink tailors pencil so that no markings would show through. I ended up having to make another trip to the fabric store, mid project. I realized that 1) the mesh behind the flowers showed a lot of negative space once it was held up, so it needed a lining, 2) I didn’t have an invisible zipper on hand long enough for the dress, and 3) the fabric I had chosen for the midsection was too light of a weight compared to the bridal satin, and even double layers didn’t feel substantial enough to use as a yoke. In the end, I picked up more of that same charmeuse fabric to line the mesh, I just used some of the ivory bridal satin to underline the charmeuse yoke, and I ended up ordering the invisible zipper from Wawak, crossing my fingers and toes that it got here quickly!

Three days before the finish deadline was check-in time! The invisible zipper did manage to get here thanks to Wawak’s quick shipping (though it got here on the 19th instead of the projected 17th, thanks FedEX). By now, I had gotten almost all the dress sewn up. The arranged drop off date for the dress was established as 7/23, which gave me a couple extra days to tie up the loose ends…and boy did I need them lol!

The day before drop-off, I finally set out on the daunting task of attaching and finishing up the skirt. I calculated the circle flounce of the skirt hem as one does for any circle skirt, which was super simple. After cutting out the radius, I felt it would be better to mark the skirt hem as one because I worried that it being so thick would make cutting on double folds be uneven.

After the skirt was cut, I attached it and did. a quick fit check with my daughter! How cute?!!

After this photo, I went back and opened the skirt seam to tuck in some of the flowers. While moving the dress around, I kept finding pieces of the flowers on the floor. It was then I learned that the flowers were made from one long, continuous stitching of ribbon, which meant that everywhere I had cut had the potential to unravel! The trickiest part was not losing any length, but also preserving the light-weighted nature of the present hem. Instead of stressing myself out, I opted for a single row of stitching 1/2″ from the bottom to catch all the ends of each cut part of the ribbon in matching thread. The only way this would be obvious to someone is if they were staring at the hem up close. Afterwards I took my rotary cutter and trimmed any of the ribbon that was hanging past the mesh so it would present as evenly as possible. All other seams were pressed open and left unfinished. I finished the liner and outer skirt with a 3-thread on my serger because I worried movement from walking would cause excessive fraying. I tried using my narrow rolled hem foot for the liner and it worked for a few minutes then became a disaster. Instead of resorting to stress, I just cut off the rolled hem I had started and ran my 3 thread on it. Don’t tell anyone I didn’t go back and hem it correctly after that 🤫

And here was the dress a few minutes before drop off! Pressed & ready for a runway show.

I am so happy I said yes to another project. Though it had its stressful moments, they were nothing in comparison to what I usually feel. I am so proud of how brave I’ve become at my big age, and how I keep doing things even when I’m a little scared to do them. I love modeling to my kids that things don’t fall apart just because we try something new, and that new opportunities will keep presenting themselves to us as we show how we are willing to grow. I have never made a pattern for someone else’s design. I have never sewn a fully lined dress, let alone one like this. I haven’t worked with satin fabrics, except very early on in my sewing when I tried my hand at making a butterfly costume for my daughter. Yet here I am with my second piece on a runway in the same year. I have an official collaboration under my belt. I feel more capable. I feel more confident. I feel the growth and transformation happening. And I can feel a lot more “YES” in my future. Thank you, Jaleh!

If you wanna see the modeled look during the Behind the Seams Fashion Show at Crocker Museum in Sacramento, the Earth Gala in San Francisco, and hear what Mabel thought of my envisioning of her design, stay tuned for my Part 2 post! I will have it up as soon as we get photos back from the photographers for the events. In the meantime, I have a couple pics I snapped behind the scenes at the Earth Gala this past weekend in San Francisco (modeled by the beautiful Chantal).

As a little bonus, I made a flat. of the finished dress. This is a skill I learned last semester in advanced illustration, so I’ve been trying to practice where I can. ☺️