The Joi dress

The Anna dress is slowly progressing, but there's not much to show yet. So I might as well post a dress I made earlier this summer. The pattern is from the Dutch sewing magazine Knipmode.

Knipmode 4/2013-8

Since my fabric, a flowery chiffon, was very sheer I decided to underline the bodice with black cotton poplin. I handbasted the two layers together which resulted in opaque and stabilized pieces. Lauren wrote a very educational post about the why and how of underlining.

For the skirt I wanted to preserve the drape of the chiffon, so I finished fabric and lining separately with french seams. To my surprise the pattern did not use facings for either the front scoop neck or the deep v-neck in the back. I prefer my necklines to keep their shape, so I drafted facings and added a light fusible interfacing. I used satin tape to sew the facing to the lining. Just for the fun of it.

I handpicked my zipper, a tutorial can be found here.

When it came to hemming chiffon I had absolutely no clue about the best way to deal with it. Google to the rescue. Google came up with a YouTube video of a very brave lady, hemming an intricate bridesmaid dress by using a candle. A burning candle. What the....? Call the fire brigade in order to rescue my french seams and handpicked zipper? Never! After some more surfing the interwebs I decided to stitch once, cut off the seam allowance and roll over again. It took some time to finish that tiny hem in the sheer and slippery fabric but I preferred the look over the curled edges that were the result of the scary burning process.

Hemming the lining skirt was much quicker  could have been a quicker job but I decided to go a little overboard for the sake of prettiness. I finished the hem with some black lace.

 Black on black, on the inside, mmm. Oh, well. Did I mention going a little overboard?

 Yo! Can you blame me for flashing my skirt when I get into my car?

The finished dress, with the scoop neck in the front:

And the deep v-neck at the back: