The dress was so beautiful under the sun and flowing with the wind
My husband always loves Vietnamese traditional longdress. Have you heard about it? We call it “AODAI”. Coming to Canada, there’s so little chance for me to wear the original one. Different from Shanghai dress or Cheongsam, Aodai has alots of hand stitching and has to wear with pants (very simple : fit around hip and very wide open leg).
10 days ago my husband bought me this Italian silk piece in an Italian fabric store. It’s gorgeous. I love the print and beautiful color, roses and lily I think (I’m not sure what its named in English but we have alots back in Vietnam) based on light pink background. It’s stretching also. I said to my husband that I would modernize it so it’s wearable at anytime.
Cutting technique for original AODAI is very complicated because it’s supposed to fit totally your body on the top part. Trully I’ve never attended to any sewing or designing class, but anything could challenge me and I did it without pattern. To simplize it I made the sleeveless dress and wide open neck. Cutting silk is so painful. I cut very slowly and carefully to get the straight cut (never folded the fabric like other style) then ironed on thin interface to all the edges. So that I had stitched lines flat without any wrinkle. Before hand-stitching I took off all the interface to keep the soft and natural look. Woman’s body , the curve … is AODAI inspiration. The V-shape cut at the side waist shown it all. The pants’s waistband supposed to be under the body waist about 2 inches. It shows a little bit skin there as you know the original dress cover the whole body (please see the photo attached). As Asian culture, show off woman skin is not a good thing (of course now it’s so much different).
The dress has 70% is hand-stitched. – all around the front and back of the bottom part (hand-stitched binding under the garment to give clean look and no stitchline on the right side) and the neck. I stitched in the back of the collar 2 plastic pieces – were covered by the same fabric (that used to straight collar in man’s shirt) I got the extra pair from my husband shirt that make the collar stood up a little bit behind my neck.
We had so beautiful weather this weekend so we’ve gone out today to take some outdoor pictures . It turned out pretty nice. Under the sun the flowers were so beautiful. The silk fabric was soooo light so it was like flowing with the wind. Loved it. I wish I can upload more pictures in :). And here we go I got those to share with you.
Winning this contest is not important for me. I just want to share my work and love to see other projects and appreciate everybody’s works.
Please visit my website Designs and Life Styles :
http://cloudyhn.webs.com/apps/blog/show/3376291-vietnamese-aodai for more
More than just sewing – Cloudyhn
That is beautiful and perfectly fit. It looks stunning on you! Amazing work!
I came onto this part of Threads looking for inspiration. I am a novice sewer just finding my way around purchased patterns (never mind trying to design my own!). Your creation is really stunning and I am very impressed by your patience too, to spend so much effort on cutting and hand sewing. The fabric works perfectly too, so thank you for sharing such a great project.
You should be very proud of this project. It is beautiful. I love the flow and the fit. I am sure your husband loves it also.
Thank you all for your comments that encourage me so much. AODAI is one of Vietnamese Signatures to the world that I love to share through this project ...
This is so beautiful and the fabric is just gorgeous! It looks like you gave a lot of thought to where things would lay. I am so inspired by your project and hope you post more pictures of your design and workmanship.
What a poetic garment. The placement of the fabric print is perfect, too. Considering the detail and the close fit, it is difficult to believe that you have no professional training—Bravo! I very much like the neckline and the detail of the rose blossom. I find it more lovely than the professional examples that you included in the photographs. Yes, you have also achieved another of your goals: this is a garment that you can wear often—not only for weddings and galas.
Go for Spring Girl...You've done amazing work. The dress really catched the sunlight. I love the flowing. I know about Vietnamese Aodai, you put a lots of thoughts on cutting and making a beautiful modern version and occasional wearable. Well done!!!
Gorgeous- both the outfit and the model.
Dear sewers, Thank you all . It really means alot to me. Thanks!!!
Absolutely beautiful. Very well crafted and the dress fits you to a "T".
Absolutely gorgeous - your placement of the design in the fabric is perfect, and the fit is sublime!
I love Aodai - they are my favorite of the Asian traditional garments for women. So beautiful, and yet practical to walk and move in. You could wear that beatiful work of art to so many places and be completely appropriate.
This should be a winner!
I have to agree with you claudiajean. This dress should be a winner.
What a beautiful, beautiful garment! And thank you for describing it so well -- I did not know about the Aodai before. Yours is simply stunning.
Thank you all again for your nice comments on my dress. Unlucky it was not chosen to the finalists but that did not let me down at all. Lots of nice designs posted and I learned from them, gave myself ideas for my designs. Design for Life!!!
Visit my website to see more of my projects
More than just sewing - cloudyhn http://cloudyhn.web.com/apps/blog/
It was sad. I kind of disagreed with the editors' choices. This dress should have been in the 5 finalists. Tell me how many sewing designed and stitched without pattern like you... Not many. Almost they are using patterns. You beat patternmakers. How about color pallette? ...
So talented dear...
It is gorgeous! I lived in Vietnam when I was a little girl and wore the Aodai. Very comfortable and loved the pants. I actually still have one of the dresses from over 40 years ago. Thank you for sharing.
Just found your post, whilst looking for something else.
So glad I found it....................one word.........STUNNING!!