The Sirona gown in daylight.

I dragged Claudia out into the garden to take some proper pictures of the finished dress.  Dress forms have got to be one of the most awkward things to maneuver through a house.  Good thing they don't make them with heads or she would have been decapitated on the upstairs banister!!!






















I love chiffon - if only it was easier to work with.

A shot of the train.

A close up of the bodice from the side.

Finished Project - The Sirona Gown

This has been one of those projects where everything fell blissfully into place. There were no major difficulties to navigate, everything fit where it should and I didn't pull a single hair out!!!

The completed dress squeezed onto Claudia!

Dress from the front and a swooooosh of train.


With the lining all done and the hems all sorted, the best bit of all still remained - decoration.

I made loads of flowers (a biscuit tin full) from satin, organza and any other fabrics in shades of gold and cream I had in my stash.

I also payed a visted to Primark and bought a couple of pieces of jewellry which I cut up to utilise the beads.  This is a great way of buying beads on a budget.

 Pinning flowers in place.

More flowers arranged over the shoulder.

Flowers on the waistline.

Another shot of the front.

Space is a bit tight to get decent photographs of the entire dress so when the weather dries up a bit I'm planning to drag Claudia into the garden and get some better photos.

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.

The Sirona gown in gold satin.

That familiar feeling of slight trepidation always strikes just as I'm about to start cutting out in fabric.  It's like a little voice in my subconscious 'Are you sure you want to take those very sharp scissors to this beautiful fabric?!' 

Crepe back satin or satin back crepe, depending on how you look at it, cuts and sews beautifully.  It has a lovely weight that makes it easier to work with than a limper satin and it's pretty robust - generally speaking pins won't mark the fabric. I sewed the whole thing together, keeping one side seam open so I could wriggle into it just to be absolutely sure of fit before progressing any further.  Only when i was certain that the dress was exactly right did I unpick the other side seam and shoulder seam thus separating the front from the back.

The gown cut out in gold satin before I unpicked it again.. 

I couldn't help but think when I got to this point how great this could be if it was cut out on the bias. 

  

The train.

 

                                                                

            

 

A view of the side.

From here the fun can really begin.  The next step is to drape the chiffon directly onto the gown.  Yay!!!

Sirona Gown - progress.

I cut my pattern out in polycotton to check the fit and make sure I hadn't made any errors when pattern drafting.  Everything matched up and it only needed a few tweaks to the fit here and there which I transfered over to my paper pattern.  As there were not any drastic changes it means I will be able to use this as the lining - this made me super happy as I despair at wasting fabric.

 

Dress from the front before slight changes to the fit were made.  I needed to tighten it up around the bust and waist to an exetremely close fit, to prevent the dress from slipping on the strapless side.

 

The back -  it has a little train!

I can't wait to cut this out in my satin fabric - the colour is called latte - a very pretty pale gold.

My latest project - the Sirona Gown

I have been busy beavering away on a new gown.  I was inspired by Elie Saabs embellished and appliqued evening and bridal wear.  I just love the encrusted-ness!

Sigh.....

So with a head full of bedazzling lovelyness I thought it would be fun to make something like this....


 
















Apologies for the poor image - if there's a photographer in me, she's buried deep.

Its an asymmetric, one shoulder, floor length gown consisting of a lining and satin outer shell which I have cut from my own blocks.  Once the satin front and back are sewn I am then planning to drape, gather and manipulate chiffon directly onto the satin before bringing the front and back together, putting in a zip and finishing it off with the lining.  The delicate task of sewing on the appliques and beading will come at the end.