Sparkle and Shine!

We’re starting off the New Year with sparkle and shine.  What I love about this dress is the classic color and chic silhouette.  It’s timeless!   Thank you Dorcas!  You can follow Dorcas at Lone Star Couture.  

Happy New Year! And welcome to my first official blog post as Brand Ambassador for Sew Much Fabric one of the premier on-line resources for exquisite fabrics, notions and expertise on how to style it into fashion!

This version of the classic McCall’s sheath 2401 (out of print) is made from SMF’s Smokey Taupe Sequin Stretch Lace overlaid on Smokey Taupe Satin, both available on the website. It was my first foray into sewing with a stretch lace overlay and so, as I’m famous for, I flew by the seat of my pants! I decided to approach it by basting the two layers together and treating them as one:

It worked great, even on the darts:

I inserted the zipper and sewed backs to front for a fitting. Thanks to my previous professional fitting with Andrea of Sew to Fit, there were no adjustments to make. Having perfection on fit and the fact that the reverse side of the satin was beautiful, I decided I didn’t want the bulk of another layer of lining. My dilemma then was how to finish the neckline and inside? I cut a 2″ wide bias strip of the satin and used that for the neckline finish and I was very pleased with it:

I winced and went ahead and serged the other raw seams and it actually looks great. By the way, a great tip I learned from Susan Khalje is not to sew your bust dart down along the side seam, let it remain free for a much better fit:

I left the sleeves unlined and that was an easy process to measure the correct length using the scalloped edge at the wrist:

The final result is I am LOVING this little sparkler of a dress!

I paired it with my Glam Trench Coat (fabrics from Sew Much Fabric: linen sold out, brocade here) and with the unexpected addition of my metallic cowboy boots it was a huge hit! In fact, I was having such a good time I forgot to have some photos taken!

I wish you all a blessed and bountiful 2018 with lots of time for sewing! See you next time!