BurdaStyle Ballgown

I don't often go to very formal parties, but when I do I love to make something new.  I had no idea what I wanted so I just went fabric shopping and let that provide the inspiration.

The fabric I chose was a bold floral polyester brocade that I purchased in China.  While I was working on it I was amazed to see that Goodbye Valentino was working on a dress in the exact fabric.  So for once you can actually currently find this fabric at Mood!! - Brocade fabric from Mood.

This is a mix of 2 patterns, both of which are too old to still feature on the BurdaStyle website unfortunately.  I found the images on the Russian site for reference.

Bodice - 03/2008 - 119

Skirt - 07/2004 - 134 .  Previously made here and once again I left off the chiffon side godet pieces. Also, thank you earlier me for labelling that old blog post so I could find the pattern #.

I really procrastinated about whether to do the full skirt from the bodice pattern I had chosen, but in the end decided that it might be a bit too much going on with the floral fabric.  I think in a strapless style though, a full skirt would look amazing.

As usual I didn't leave myself a ton of time to make this so I haven't made many notes or taken many photos of the dress during construction, but let's see what I can remember.....

I interfaced the entire bodice, straightening out the waist seam and moved the darts on the skirt so that they would line up with the princess seams on the bodice.

With this type of dress I like to finish the whole of the outer dress, then make the lining and attach that by hand.  I didn't use the neckline facings, instead just reinforcing the neckline edge with some bias tape and then turning to the inside and hand stitching down.  To get a nice point on the centre of the front neckline, I used a small remnant of lining fabric, stitched the shape of the point, clipped, understitched and then turned and pressed to the inside.  I did the exact same thing on the lining fabric, without the bias tape and remembered to take a few photos which hopefully show better what I am talking about.

Lining remnant stitched right side together at v neckline & clipped at point

Understitched

View from right side after turning and pressing

View from wrong side

This is how the finished dress looked on the inside before the lining was sewn in.  If you make this I recommend cutting the sleeves with a bit extra seam allowance.  I am sure that they are intended to be self lined, but mine did not quite meet up in the middle leaving some exposed edges.  It didn't matter since I covered this with lining, but still it was a bit annoying!

Finally some more photos taken on the night of the party, these are all phone photos that I had to email to myself (thanks to broken cable connection and probably general tech incompetence) so they are a bit blurry, but hopefully you get the idea!  Overall I was really happy in my dress, maybe next time I go to a ball I will wear this again rather than make another one!

The night of the ball also happened to coincide with our 17th wedding anniversary!  We had a black tie wedding so my husband is wearing the exact outfit he wore back then, actually the bodice of mine was red with a similar neckline now I think about it, wonder if that was subconsciously in my mind all along!

Speedy Black Tie Outfit ; BurdaStyle 07/2004 - 134 Long Skirt

We were invited last minute to a ball due to a cancellation (I'm not proud, if someone wants to give me a free ticket for a do at the Four Seasons, I'm in!).  We got invited on Thursday for the event on Saturday and my first thought was that it was a shame I didn't have time to make a new outfit as I love making stuff for special occasions.

This was soon followed by an impulse to make something anyway, just a simple sheath dress, but in a great fabric, maybe a nice brocade or lace.  Before dashing off to the fabric stores I thought I had better have a dig though my stash first just to check I didn't already have anything and I remembered this amazing stretch velvet I bought in Sydney back in February.  My husband was astonished that I could have forgotten about it so quickly, but hopefully you understand better!

This fabric is a stretch embossed jersey (I think, it looks like a burnout velvet, but I think the velvet is stuck on rather than a layer being taken off, if that makes any sense) so I changed my plans completely, but still needed something quick to make and not requiring muslins or tricky fitting.  The base is a deep indigo and the velvet spots are a raspberry through purple ombre effect - really difficult to photograph, but just gorgeous.

This is what I came up with.  The skirt is from way back in the archives - 07/2004 - 134, without the godets and the top is yet another version of the one in my last post (08/2011 - 126).  I knew I could make this fast.  The skirt is part of a completely over the top outfit, but if you just focus on the line drawings it is possible to see beyond the gold satin crop top!

Despite it being a quick make, I love how it turned out.  Admittedly the fabric is doing a lot of the work, but I really like the cut of the skirt, the shaping of the centre back seam makes it drape really nicely.  The skirt is lined with a non stretch silk so I needed to insert the zipper otherwise it would have been even quicker.

The only change I made to the 3rd version of my top was to eliminate the centre front seam so I didn't have to think about matching the dots.  The pattern is quite large and I doubt I would have had enough fabric anyway.  I finished the neck edge with a drafted facing of lightweight knit lining, clipping right into the v and topstitching to keep everything in place.

I was really comfortable all night, yet felt dressed up.  I have no idea when I will get to wear the whole outfit again, but I will be able to wear the top with other bottoms for less formal occasions.

This is a snap in the hotel lobby, I wore it with black satin sandals, pink sparkly earrings and a pink satin woven clutch bag.