I’ve been remiss about keeping up with what I’ve been working on; I’ve been busy, nevertheless.

A younger friend is getting married on June 8. She needed a wedding gown. She tried shopping for one but wasn’t enthusiastic about what was available. I suggested she make one.

I sent her a photo of the wedding gown worn by Meghan Markle – stunning in its simplicity. Completely plain, a silk organza over a woven silk, princess fitted dress with sleeves and a clean neckline; no lace.

I sent Marni a photo of the Cashmerette “Upton” Dress”

Same thing – clean lines, nice neckline, sleeves, and pleated skirt (which falls gracefully like a princess cut). Then I went to an online fabric store in India specializing in silk – FabricsandTrims. I’ve bought fabric from them before so I knew what we would be getting. I was suggesting an off white silk dupioni which would have a bit of sheen but also some texture and would drape nicely.

To stabilize it, I thought we should back the silk with a very light-weight fusible woven interfacing. (I ordered this from Blackbird Fabrics in BC.)

Marni a quilter; hasn’t done much garment making, but if I would help her, she was willing to take the risk. So she bought the pattern, we ordered the silk and the interfacing. She picked up thread, and an invisible zipper. We were set to go.

We traced the pattern, made a few small adjustments. Then we worked on a wearable muslin – potentially a light-weight summer dress. As we worked our way through the muslin, which went quickly with each of us sewing different parts of the garment, I made adjustments to the dress which I transferred to the traced pattern. It took us as I recall three sewing sessions to make the muslin which is definitely wearable!

Now for the silk. We’d already applied the interfacing to five of the eight metres of silk so that was ready to be cut. Our challenge was this – the skirt at the bottom was 51″ wide, our fabric was 42″! So I had to make both the front and back skirt in sections. I chose to embed the seam I created on the inside of the side pleat so it would be more or less hidden. We made a mock-up of the skirt using black quilting cotton to check the position of the seam – it was fine. Finally we cut out the dress (which took just 4 1/2m of fabric – better to have too much than not enough!).

Trusting that the adjustments I’d made to the pattern were accurate, and with both of us sewing, we began constructing the dress. First the bodice, next the bodice lining. Marni serged all the remaining edge seams on the sleeves and skirt to keep them from fraying. We added the band to the front and back of the bodice (and bodice lining), and sewed the neckline seam. Next we attached the sleeves. Now we assembled and added the front and back skirt panels. Here’s when the invisible zipper was installed and the back seam finished. Last we stitched the underarm and side seams. In two sewing sessions we had a completed dress.

Today we did the finishing – hemmed the bottom on the machine using a blind hem foot; hand stitched the hem on the sleeves, and finished with a hook and a loop to close the top above the zipper.

Done.

There’s one last decision to make – Marni wanted some kind of embroidered embellishment on the band joining bodice and skirt. I made some flowers using two layers of silk organza with a tear-away stabilizer.

Whether to add the flowers or not is her last decision. I prefer the dress unadorned. However, I sent the appliqués home with her – she can decide what she prefers.

A happy bride-to-be. I even wrote Cashmerette letting them know how pleased I was with how well the pattern worked out for us.

We began the project on April 4. It took us 11 sewing sessions to make two dresses.