Elie Saab inspired magenta dress

The inspiration for this dress came from Elie Saab's 2014 Resort collection

 

 (c) Elie Saab 2014 Resort

Of course I had to make changes to the design. First of all, the client wanted a dress with long sleeves. Second, the fabric in my stash was a medium-heavy weight one, most likely a synthetic of some kind, not stretchy, with a lovely diagonal ribbing effect. At first, in the store, I assumed it was a ribbed jersey, however... The fabric sewed beautifully, though the colour bled when I decanted the fabric prior to working with it. Did not shrink, I think. And third, the client wanted a more modest gorge treatment.

 

This was my second ever dress made from the Rundschau (Мюллер) pattern. I copied the front and back pieces and freehanded the style lines on them. Then, copied pattern pieces with seam allowances.

 

Construction: there is horsehair interfacing in the front to keep the shape of the upper part of the dress. There are thin hand-made shoulder pads, and sleeve roll pads (bias strips of soft medium weight wool). Invisible zipper (my second in a dress). The dress is fully lined.

 

Front style lines detail

Front neck opening and back lining detail

Lining attached to the bottom of dress

Lapped slit in the back

I had to re-sew the zipper several time to match the back

Back unzipped with lining picking out

 Et voilà. Merci!

Easter 2014

 

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Elie Saab - Resort 2014

In August 2015 we were invited to a wedding of a good friend. My client (obviously) had "nothing" to wear. She was extremely busy with work, so shopping was out of the question.

On the way to the reception. The fabric is merciless and wrinkles badly.

I had a cotton satin blend in gorgeous green colour in my stash. I think I bought it to make a skirt. It had to be made into a dress.

Starting with my Rundschau (Мюллер) dress draft, I drew design lines, and made a pattern. This one had a lot of pattern pieces. To stiffen the front décolleté I used sew-in hair canvas interfacing. It also helped with stability when I started applying crystal claw rivets.

Rivets of doom. They did not want to stay in place!

The dress has hand-made shoulder pads, again with pieces of hair canvas and cotton wadding.

I did not line the dress simply because I did not have any appropriate lining, and because I did not have any budget to go buy anything. As well, it was very hot, and if the lining were synthetic, the client would have been miserable.

The slit in the back is not lapped, and I used grosgrain ribbon (from the Dollar Store - Dollarama) to finish the edges. I used the same ribbon to finish the turned under hem (remember, I don't own an overlock machine). If I remember correctly, I bought the ribbon for a different project altogether.

In the back I used an invisible zipper, even though my preference would have been a metallic zipper with a chunky zipper pull.

Moulin Spa Wakefield, QC - August 2015

What do you think?

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