Silk Jacquard dress with 2 jackets and belt options

Thank you Threads for leading me to a fabric-lover “hole-in-the-wall” gem. It was your #155 June/July 2011 issue front cover graphic special featuring Vancouver, BC that led my good natured, fabric tolerant sweetheart, Mike, to pick up that issue because we were going there soon.

Designer Fabric Liquidators (Atex Fabrics), 150 W. Hastings St., downtown E. side Vancouver, has a rollover inventory of bolt-end designer fabrics at heart-beating prices even when you take into account the Canadian VAT.

Mike knows to leave me alone in a fabric store. However, he came across this amazing silk jacquard that he just had to show me. It was the heaviest weight of silk (close to upholstery weight) that I could imagine a garment of. An ivory background with mauve woven into it. Alas, the ivory with my skin tones would just wipe me out, I said, too bad the colors weren’t the other way around: mauve background with ivory. “Does this work with it?” Mike said, as he pulls out a bolt of mauve silk taffeta on one side with an ivory silk satin on the other. Wow! Now my juices are salivating. I can do something with this!! Ok, now how much are these jewels? And how much is left on these bolts? “11 meters, 60″ wide on the jacquard; and 4 meters, 60” wide on the taffeta. We got these in from Paris. The jacquard was going for $85. a meter. I’ll sell them to you for $10. Canadian a meter, says the only other person in this small, hunt and pick shop. I died and went to heaven. Mike says, “She’ll take all of it”.

I chose Vogue pattern 8727 for the dress. I used the mauve taffeta for the bodice and back (up around the face for the color), and the jacquard for the midriff and skirt. I prewashed both silks in cold water: gentle cycle, cool dryer. Yep, I did. I premeasured both pieces out of curiosity to see how much shrinkage there would be. In 11 meters of jacquard it shrank 1″; the taffeta, none. There are 6 bias cut gores in the very full skirt that allowed the weight of the jacquard to fall elegantly into folds. I french-seamed all seams. I did not add a lining. For my body type, I tweaked the dimensions of the midriff and the bodice. I did line these. I machine rolled the hem, twice, to mid-calf.

For the jackets, I used McCall’s 5006. In the mauve silk jacket, I used the ivory satin side face out as the lining. I made 3/4 length sleeves. A large store-bought rhinestone button in the center of the jacket and matching smaller one at the end of each sleeve on the seam line (just because I liked it when my elbows are on the table and you can catch a twinkle!).

The second jacket is polyester duchess satin in aubergine color with a polyester lining. Long sleeves on this one: the sleeve length and fall-like color gives me another season to use this gorgeous dress. A large self-covered button in the jacquard picks up the dress fabric. A self-covered 1/2″ wide satin belt completes the look with a modern take on a 1960’s look.

I had so much pleasure working with that silk jacquard. I still have 6 wonderful meters left for another project. Let’s see…

Sewing, Photos and Text by Tiffany Thomas

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