A Very Special 'Special Occasion' Dress

(Aka How to sew a Communion dress Part 2)

(Part 1 covers most of the sewing detail & the patterns used)

The Communion dress was finished in plenty time and my niece loved it, so much so she wants to keep it forever! (Lucky I sewed that garment bag!)

For a first time sewing a dress like this, I was very pleased with how it looked.

 

All the seams of the chiffon were French-seams, which is recommended for this type of sheer fabric that can fray badly.

The chiffon was difficult to work with not only because it frays, but also my basic sewing machine doesn't handle very lightweight fabric well.

 

The dress was lined with a silk cotton fabric which I had in my stash. The picture shows the step just before I sewed the armholes, and then pushed each back piece through shoulders to turn the dress right side out. I can guarantee that I held my breath for the turning part!!!

 

 

 

 

 

I also added a layer of soft netting to the skirt portion of the dress. This was sewn between the outside layer and the lining, so that it wouldn't irritate her skin.

To ensure the netting would hold it's shape while she sat and walked, I added broiderie anglaise trim to the lining hem, then turned it up to enclose the folds of the net. This also made the inside of the dress neater.

 

There was only one fitting and I made a few changes. I recut the bolero from the Brooklyn Shrug pattern in the book Sewing Clothes Kids Love, and took out the gathers on the sleeve cap. The curve of the front needed to be reduced (tucked under in the picture) so that it wouldn't hide the lace trim. The placement of the lace was altered to follow the line of the princess seam.

The folds of the chiffon sash didn't hold well or lie very flat, so I sewed it from the inside with invisible thread.

 

 

 

 

 

It suited her so perfectly.

 

Sometimes I take my sewing skills for granted, or get caught up in the little details that I think are not perfect, or should have sewn differently. In focusing on the tiny details it is so easy to miss the bigger picture.

As her godmother, it was such an honour to be trusted with making this dress for my niece. What made it even better was how much she enjoyed the process, and how delighted she was to be so involved in the design of her special dress. She loved that it was made just for her.

 

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Sewing with chiffon

There's a lot of talk about weddings in our house at the moment. My husband's cousin got married a few weeks ago, and my brother is getting married at the end of the month. His wedding is in Sweden and I offered to sew some bunting to decorate the hall, and bake brownies for the dessert (it is a buffet style reception). The bunting is finished - see picture. Each flag is 2 triangles zig-zagged together, sewn onto fold-over elastic and I ended up sewing 30 metres!

I sewed a chiffon dress for the first wedding, which I will wear again for my brother's wedding - none of my family have seen it ;-) well, except my husband who bought the fabric for my last birthday!

This was my second time sewing with silk chiffon and I was surprised at how much more confident I was. Perhaps the reason I was so terrified of it the first time was more to do with sewing for a friend, than the fabric.


I wanted to sew a dress with cut-off sleeves and a circle skirt for a while, but couldn't find the exact pattern that I had in my head! Eventually I based the dress on a combination of the measurement of a dress I already owned, a 1995 Butterick pattern view C and a circle skirt that I drafted.

There are some basics if you are going to sew with chiffon

• make sure the pattern is suitable. I would suggest a pattern with fewer pattern pieces, so that there will be less cutting and sewing of chiffon to be done. I chose to sew a style that had a back, front and 3 piece circle skirt
• Careful cutting on a non slippy surface, (I found this video helpful) preferable using pattern weights
  
• Microtex needles, and though some recommend silk thread, I found that regular polyester thread worked fine.
  
• Careful sewing by holding the fabric in front and behind the needle - I found the fabric fairly robust to sew with, unless you have to rip out stitches, then it can disintegrate unless care is taken
  
• Finish seams as the fabric frays a lot. I mostly used French seams, but also zig-zagged where it would be hidden inside the lining.
  
• When I inserted the zip in the chiffon fabric, I stabilised the chiffon with strips of the lining fabric on the zipper stitching line
  

Hemming a circle chiffon skirt is not for the faint hearted! Before hemming, the skirt has to be left to hang at least for a day or two because parts of the circle skirt are on the bias. Then the hem has to be straightened - this took me about 2 hours!

Sewing the hem was almost easy after that!!! I used a regular sewing foot, a small stitch and 3 lines of stitching.

The dress is also lined in silk, which I sewed separately to the chiffon, then joined at the armholes, neckline and zip. I hand-stitched the lining to the zipper tape.




There are some very helpful tips on the Internet and some I've pinned.

Sewing with sheers

Cutting slippery fabrics

Hemming chiffon

Excellent blog post

The pictures don't reflect the floaty movement of the chiffon skirt when I wear it, except maybe for this picture. Though I don't think it's my colour, the dress feels wonderful to wear, which makes it a winner!

 

 

 

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