Silhouette Traditional Brilliant Red Mouline Silk Dress

Given the speed of my knitting this is probably as close to a knitted dress as I will ever get. Not entirely true because my aunt knitted me a dress back in the 80's when they were all the rage and I loved it. However the Elizabeth Zimmerman Seamless Raglan Jumper I started back in June has reached the same point, after three months, as before it was unravelled. On that basis a knit dress I can sew is definitely the best kind for me.

As a slight deviation Kate from Fabrickated has a new challenge the Transform sew-a-long (#TransformTSAL) to manipulate the fabric in an over-sized t-shirt to make a wearable garment à la Olivier Saillard who transformed the humble jersey t-shirt using Madame Grѐs' draping techniques (read a review here). I am extremely tempted to join in this challenge. It is more likely to be finished than the EZ knit-a-long plus I would be happy to wear the t-shirt if I could achieve a result like Saillard. Something to do in the Christmas holidays.

The finished garment

I just absolutely love this dress. It was love at first sight when I saw the fabric and the feeling of joy has continued with the finished garment. I am very proud of the circular knitting in this dress which saw the stripes line-up at every seam, including at centre back with the invisible zipper.

The fabric

Whilst shopping at The Fabric Store searching for the ultimate Gertie dress fabric for the class we took back in October I came across this Tory Burch fabric. Whilst not suitable for a Gertie dress it was absolutely my style and I snapped some up. There was no maturing in stash it was taken home and immediately washed so it could be sewn the following weekend (after the Gertie class). This fabric cemented my idea for a blue and red colour theme for my Houston Travel Wardrobe.

The pattern

Once again I used my go to dress pattern which is a combination of Silhouette Patterns #400 traditional blouse view 2 and #2010 three piece yoga skirt. The fabric really was the star of this garment and I wanted a simple dress in order to not detract from the beauty of the fabric.

The pattern alterations

After the last time I made this dress I did a 3/4" sway back adjustment to the pattern piece and that seems to have worked quite well for this version.  I angled both the front and back pattern pieces out 1" at centre front/back (the neckline is placed at the fabric fold and the hem of the dress is 1" away from the fold) to create a more flared skirt.

A square neckline was cut directly into the dress front fabric as I wanted something different to my previous versions and thought square was a good option for the stripe effect of the rows of knitting.

The dress body is lined as I was worried about the longevity of the silk. The lining used the same pattern pieces except I cut a straight skirt rather than the A-line shape of the silk skirt and I omitted the sleeves.

The sewing

The silk fabric frayed easily so all the edges were overlocked before being sewn on the sewing machine using a straight stitch. I overlocked the lining edges before sewing too.

I was completely obsessed with this dress being knitted in the round. So much so that I used Clover fork blocking pins that anchor the fabric in two places making it harder for the stripes to move out of alignment as the seam is sewn. I also used the integrated dual feed on my Bernina to stop the fabric layers slipping out of alignment.

The pinned seam using Clover fork blocking pins

The lining and outer dress were sewn separately then joined at the neckline. The neckline seam was reduced after it was sewn using pinking shears and then understitched.

For the Gertie class I purchased a cream invisible zip which I ended up not using because Gertie demonstrated a clever method for inserting a lapped zip and I had an opportunity at lunch time to buy the correct zip to try the technique. For some reason I then decided that the invisible zip had to be used in my knitted dress. When you consider how many zips I have in the stash because they were never used for their intended project or the intended project never became a reality there is no logic to my fixation to use this zip when I don't need it to enter or exit the dress.

Use of the invisible zip added considerably to the sewing time for this dress. The insertion of an invisible zip is not difficult but for some reason that weekend it was beyond my sewing power. I managed to sew it too close to the teeth for it to zip back up (but the stripes matched perfectly). When re-sewn the stripes wandered off course so once again some reverse stitching occurred. The lovely seam ripper I was gifted certainly got a work-out with this dress. The third time was the charm except it doesn't finish at the neck edge and I really should add a hook and eye. Once I had inserted the zip the centre back seam was finished. For the lining the centre back seam was sewn first from the point the zip ended to the hem, then to the zip and silk. This gives a really neat finish to the inside of the garment.

Excuse the wrinkles I'm an iron before wearing not iron before wardrobe kinda girl

The hems of the sleeves and dress were hand sewn using cream silk kimono thread. This is a very fine #100 thread which avoided any show through on the right side of the garment. As I didn't want to line the sleeves I hand stitched the lining to the dress sleeve seam. The lining hem was machine stitched.

Having worn this dress a few times I should either have underlined the silk or not made the dress quite as fitted because I have some pulling at the vertical darts - more at the front than the back.  I am thinking of undoing those fisheye darts front and back to re-sew with the silk and lining as one. Depending on what I find when I undo the darts I might reduce their size to counteract the stress caused by the bloating tummy.

The original Tory Burch

Not exactly up to the minute high fashion as the Tory Burch collection using this fabric was for Spring Summer 2015. As I don't aspire to high fashion I was more than comfortable making my dress out of this three-year old designer fabric.

I really like the little knit t-shirt which I might try to re-create using the Papercut Patterns Ensis Tee. It would need to be altered to use a woven fabric but that is an easy alteration and I do have fabric left-over from the dress.

Outfit of the day

At home in front of the Clematis, wearing:
Untouched World Zephyr Ecopossum coat cardi and United Nude Zink Patch Mid Pop Mix booties

Out and about in Houston
More details about the accessories worn in these pictures can be found in the Houston travel wardrobe post.

At Quilt Festival posing in front of the giant Bernina sewing machine, wearing:
Untouched World Moonless Lofty Merino Cardi, United Nude Zink Patch Mid Pop Mix
booties and Trelise Cooper Chasing Rainbows tote

At Saks Fifth Avenue, Houston Galleria

Whilst wandering around Saks Fifth Avenue admiring the designer clothing my dress was mistaken for the genuine article by someone who had the Tory Burch dress in her wardrobe. The ultimate compliment?