Prom is a major milestone for a young lady and having a dress made is usually in order. Kandice commissioned Barbara, a local “sewing engineer”, to make her dream prom dress. She got the dress she had envisioned! She selected Black Diamond Stretch Sequin for her fabricand received many compliments. Thank you Barbara for sharing your tips on sewing with this fabric!
Kandice sent a picture of a dress she liked and we made some modifications to suit her. I designed the pattern, a 7 panel fit and flair. She brought this gorgeous sequin fabric that formed diamonds, the backing was a knit, not a lot of stretch, but with the weight of the fabric it stretched 2 “ in length.
Sewing was easy. I used a size 90 universal needle, a Teflon foot and 3.0 length straight stitch. I wanted to keep a 1 piece top but had to have 3 panels for the front. I took a tip from the past and cut over to the side at the dart point of the fisheye dart and divided the pattern where the side dart would be. This also allowed me to remove some extra fabric from the bat wing.
Being that there was not a way to hold the sleeves up I put elastic in the shoulder seam of the lining just inside the shoulder point to make a loop for her arms to go through and hold in place, (she also used some fashion tape to help secure). I used 1” elastic to make a ‘belt’ to hold the waist securely, attaching at the front either side of center panel and back. For the hem I applied 1” horsehair braid using 3/8” seam allowance, then using a catch stitch to hold the opposite edge to the dress.
Absolutely beautiful! That fabric is amazing!!!
Gorgeous gown and young lady! But that first photo looks as if her legs are missing and she's floating in the air. Otherwise, amazing!
Derp! Had to go back and take a closer look at that first photo. Now I can see that is a sofa she's standing behind and it's not the floor! That's what happens when you check your email at 6 a.m.without glasses! Disregard my previous comment 🙄