First Project

I've completed my first dress! I decided to go with Vogue Pattern V8241, the shorter version shown below, because it was one of Vogue's "very easy" patterns and a cute unstructured dress for summer.  

  

I used this amazing off-white lace I picked up at Mood.  I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos, but the lace has a strand of metallic gold thread running through it, which gives it a really subtle and gorgeous sparkle.

I used a pale nude silk satin for lining.  The silk satin was really high quality and I think the color of the lining makes the lace stand out, but I didn't think about how the stiffness of the lining would affect the final look of the dress.  I think it gives it a much more formal look than I was going for.  Clearly not the cute unstructured summer dress that I had in my head when I began.  I'm going to have to start thinking about how to choose a lining fabric at the outset of a project.   

The pattern calls for a closure at the neck with an opening down to the middle of the back.  The shape of the dress is boxy so I wanted to give it a bit more interest and I extended the opening to the waist.  I love an open-back look.  

I had to understitch at the neck, armholes and back opening to keep the lining from showing on the right side.  Since this was the first time I've ever lined a garment, let alone understitched anything, I spent quite a bit of time googling what the pattern instructions even meant, but I eventually worked it out.  

To finish off the waist seam I used bias tape.  There were a lot of firsts for me with this dress, including working with silk and this silk satin lining was fraying like crazy.  I was pretty nervous that my entire lining would unravel before I was able to finish the seams, but the bias tape seemed to fix that issue.  

All in all I think it turned out okay.

Total amount of time spent: Approximately 25 hours