Sunday, December 30, 2012

My My, Missoni-Style

My My, Missoni-Style

Found in my stash was a lovely piece of chevron fabric that I bought while shopping with my Mom in Las Vegas.  I love fabric shopping with my Mom.  I remember when the big department store sold fabric and my Mom bought me a piece of burgundy plaid wool when we went to the city for my annual check-up.  I was so excited to get home and match those plaids!  I still get just as excited about fabric shopping with Mom.  I can only allow myself to buy one or two pieces that I adore.  I then fly back to Alaska, notebook in hand, sketching my plans for the fabric on the plane ride home.  I have many sketches of what I would make for this chevron fabric.  One of them is shown below.

One of my sketches 
A sleeveless dress was appealing, but I seem to always fall back to the sleeveless dress, so I decided to go with an unlined, tight sleeve and a scoop neckline.  Not quite like the sketch.

A few of the challenges/considerations for this dress:
  • The chevron ran lengthwise on the fabric but I wanted it to go across the dress.
  • The fabric is a sweater knit and must be lined.
  • The fabric had a lovely finished selvage that called out to be used on the dress.


I decided to use princess seams, keeping the panels narrow and sewn to a lining. The lining would help keep the fabric from sagging as a result of cutting it across the grain.  I used a lovely piece of ivory Sophia knit.  The fabric has a wonderful weight, keeps it's shape and is so comfortable.  I adore this fabric from fabric.com and have pieces in a variety of colors.  I was able to line up the hem of each piece with the edge of the fabric to take advantage of the lovely selvage. It also is at the hem of the sleeves.

Just a hint of sparkle

A close up of the neckline.

 The remaining selvage went along the neckline.  I embellished the neckline with some flat black seed beads and a smokey crystal.  The beads matched the threads, so the effect is very subtle but gives just a hint of sparkle.  A necessary detail, of course!






A simple dress, with a perfect fit. 


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