Made By A Fabricista: Youtube Edition

Made By A Fabricista: Youtube Edition - Marty

I feel like this month my ambition ran away from me... again. But when I saw this beautiful polyester taffeta it just told me it HAD to be an Italian court gown. And who can argue with fabric?

This dress was a continuation of my experimental archeology in finding the best way to make a 1540s Italian Court Gown. And I think you can just see my excitement when I opened the package. If not you can definitely hear it when on the video.

The primary difference between this dress, and the others I have made in the past was the internal structure. Instead of using cotton canvas, I used Horsehair canvas. I still don't think I can properly articulate what that changed, other than it make a bigger difference than I was expecting. Once the boning channels were placed, I knew that this dress would fit me differently from all of the others. And I am not disappointed.

Adding the fashion layer is fairly straightforward. But it's a lot of smoothing and pinning, and basting to make sure that everything is in place. Something else that I did differently on this round was to add extra fabric on the sides so that I didn't have to go through the fashion and lining in order to sew the eyelets on. And it honestly made my least favorite part of build court gowns tolerable.

After the fashion fabric, it was time to decide on the guards. Originally I got a buttery yellow color from Fabric Mart for this. But the more I looked at it, the more I hated it. And the golden yellow I tried in its place wasn't much better. So I threw it out to my friends to help me decide and I got a recommendation for teal. This isn't a color combo that I would have ever thought of, but I am very impressed with it. I can't imagine a better combo.

I didn't get much, or any content of me making the skirt. But it was fairly straightforward A-line construction. With a padded hem that allowed for volume as well as some structure. This is my favorite way to hem court gowns, and honestly, any dress that needs a little something at the hem.

Was this dress done to the level that I wanted? no. But was I able to get some interesting data to take into my next dress build? absolutely. I feel like with each dress build I level up in some way or another and I can't be happier with the overall shape and look of this dress.

Don't forget to watch the video to see my ADHD brain tackle this project in the most chaotic of ways!

MARTY | @scrappypatterns

Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories, TAFFETA.

Comments

Made By A Fabricista: Liberty Snow Day

Hi everyone! While we’ve been blanketed with snow out here in Southeastern PA, I decided to conquer my fear of button holes and make NewLook pattern N6749. I was able to snag a few yards of the Jess + Jean print Liberty of London Tana Lawn for it. It’s always exciting when Fabric Mart is able to get Liberty fabrics in! I always make sure to grab some. Cutting into a beautiful piece of tana lawn is scary every time. The fabric is such good quality, I’m afraid to mess it up! I had to be extra careful as this is also the first directional pattern I’ve worked with. But one of my assistants made sure all of my pieces were laid correctly. Something I wanted to try out with this dress was finishing the inside seams using the overlock stitch on my domestic machine. Normally I would french seam, but it was nice to not have to worry about cutting seam allowance in half, sewing, trimming, flipping, and sewing again. Next time I would cut the seam allowance back before overlocking, but I thin...

Made By A Fabricista: Embracing Winter in Wool Boucle

As winter drags on, the cold weather is such a bummer to me and feeling uncomfortable and cold so often is rough. Meanwhile, I listened to a podcast all about how people in very northern countries deal better with the onset of dark, freezing winter with a radically different mindset of embracing the inevitable season by reframing the chill as refreshing and the opportunity to spend most time indoors as cozy. I can do that! I found a gorgeous, quintessential wool boucle suiting in black and white to make myself a luxurious outer layer while I’m outside attempting to embrace the sting of dry winter air… It’s kind of working. So classic, so chic! Wearing boucle is always an uptown move and I certainly do feel sophisticated in it. This black and white houndstooth combination feels especially Old Hollywood, and what a treat to make something with this! I sewed the Daphne Jacket from Vivian Shao Chen. There are no closures, and the shape is boxy and very easy to wear over multipl...

Made By A Fabricista: Sewing + Running

It’s not every day that I get to mix two of my favorite hobbies. Especially when one hobby is sewing and the other is running. You can’t sew and run at the same time, but, you can go running in something that you sewed! With this realization, I embarked on my first hobby-merging adventure. We’ve had some frigid temperatures in Pennsylvania this winter. Since I’m an outside, stroller-pushing runner, I bundle up my son and myself before I hit the road. The temperature feels 20 degrees warmer for outside runners than the outside air. For the children being pushed in the stroller though, it feels about 20 degrees colder. With these differences in temperature for each of us, layering is the only thing that ensures that we both stay perfectly warm. My running wardrobe has been lacking a warm top layer. My son’s wardrobe would also benefit from having another warm layer, so I knew pullovers were what I should make. Inspired by a name-brand ¼ button-down fleece pullover I saw,...

Fabric Mart Fabricistas

Search This Blog