Draping with chiffon - the Sirona Gown.

I don't do a lot of draping, I'm much more confident when it comes to flat pattern cutting but for this dress it was simply the best option so I plunged into unknown territory.  I  bought eight metres of cream chiffon for this dress and in the end I used about seven.





















 I started with the front and back of the dress pinned onto Claudia and worked from right to left gradually pleating and pinning the width of the chiffon in place along the neckline. Working like this there was enough chiffon to take me just past the centre front so I used the other end of the 8 metres to continue.




















Taking the other end of chiffon I draped down the strap and back towards the centre front where they overlap.







































Chiffon puddles!

At this point I had a good look at how it was going overall and felt safe enough to start cutting the hem.  Once I had chopped the fabric at the hem I started pinning the chiffon in the same manner onto the back, working from right to left - towards the strap.  When I ran out of width I used the other end of the length of chiffon once again to work down the strap towards the centre back.





















The back!

The train taking shape.

From here I had the arduous task of removing the two parts of the dress from Claudia and inserting the concealed zip oh-so carefully into the side seam whilst trying to keep everything in place.  Once that was done I sewed up the other side seam and finished the draping of the underarm panels.

This is the final shot I took of the chiffon pinned in place before I hand sewed all the little tucks, gathers, and pleats down.