The sheath dress with a little bling!

With not too much trouble at all my McCalls 5927 ‘fashion sheath’, that I promised in my last post, is complete and, with as much modesty as I can muster, I have to say that I like it and think my sewing and fitting skills are improving of late.

and here's the back view

Yes, I can hardly believe it, I made it myself!

The fabric is a silk twill designed by Rebecca Taylor – purchased from Mood Designer Fabrics, during my trip to NYC in July, for $14 per yard. I made the sleeveless version of the pattern, View B, but I added the neckline tabs from View C, onto which I have sewn some jewels bought in M & J Trimmings. Here’s a close-up so you can, hopefully, see the ‘bling’ a little better -

I followed the pattern instructions fairly slavishly but added a couple of ‘little improvements’. After cutting out I stabilized the armholes, neckline and centre back edges with a lightweight fusible interfacing to stop them stretching and help the zipper go in smoothly. Like this -

The bodice lining is an ‘edge to edge’ one (no facings) so I used the technique I learnt from Connie Long’s book where you trim the armhole edges of the lining to stop it rolling out – as explained in a previous post.

I really like the cut-in pockets of this style and the neat vent at the back. The vent is the kind where you machine stitch the seam allowances of the dress and the lining together – I had never done this before and was pleasantly surprised by how quick and easy it was.

This is the first sheath dress I have made – I’d been feeling rather cautious about making such a close-fitting dress style but this one has some little pleats at the top of the skirt at the front which means that the dress skims rather nicely over an area where I (and maybe you too?) like to have some leeway. Mr Fabulous and I are going out to celebrate his birthday tomorrow night so this dress is going to get its first outing at a very fancy restaurant where I want to look good - I hope it's up to the job!