For Some Reason...

I feel like eating a piece of Lemon Meringue pie. It might be because I skipped dinner last night to work on this dress. Plus throw in my sweet tooth into the mix. Or perhaps it's the colours of this silk fabric?    

This is the latest version of the Eva dress by Tessuti patterns. Oh. My. Goodness. This might be my favourite version so far and not because it's invoking thoughts of pie.  

I made all the changes to this dress as I did the last version and I'm just thrilled with the final fit. I changed the shape of the neckline by raising it all around by 1" providing more coverage and still allowing the design to remain a pullover style. The short sleeves were lengthened another inch and a half. The seam allowances were sewn with 5/8" instead of 1/2" allowances. The pockets were raised an inch and the hem was shortened by two inches.  

Inside look.  

Even though there was enough fabric to make my own seam binding, I used up some left over seam bindings that I found in my stash. I used some regular old white double seam binding for the neckline and sleeves. I didn't have enough for the hem but I did have just enough satin binding left over from this project. It felt good to use up supplies from the stash.    

Once again, I didn't follow the instructions, changing the order of construction. The only reason is that I felt comfortable doing it my way. Why set-in fitted sleeves when you can flat pin them? This is a perfectly drafted pattern making it easy to do.  

1. Sew the shoulder seams.  As mentioned previously I made this dress with 5/8" seam allowances. Press open.  
2. Reinforce the neckline seam with Knit-N-Stable fusible tape. Insert seam binding.
3. Flat pin the sleeve cap to the armhole seam.  
4. Sew the centre front and back seam of the upper skirt.  
5. Attach the upper skirt to the bodice pieces.
6. Sew the centre front and back seam of the lower skirt.
7. Attach the lower skirt to the upper skirt matching centre seams.   
8. Serge curve edges of the pocket pieces.  
9. Attach the pockets to the upper skirt section with 3/8" seam.  
10. Serge the raw edges of the pockets and press open.  
11. Pin the sides, pockets and sleeves and stitch.  
12. Finish the sleeve hem with seam binding.  
13. Finish the lower skirt hem with seam binding.    

The fabric is a silk fabric that I found in the home decor department.  

If it looks familiar, you might have seen it in another colour when I made this top. It is a medium-weight silk that I found at my local Fabricland store. I often find treasured pieces of fabric in the home decor department and these were some of my favourite finds. And there is still some left on the bolt. It was pre-treated with a tumble through the washing machine and dryer and a pressing on the silk setting. It handled the pre-treatment process very well. I will say that I had to work quickly and carefully with this fabric. The threads on the cross-grain certainly frayed as I work and if I wasn't careful the wrist pin cushion I was using would catch on some of those fraying threads. The seams down the sides didn't fray as much as the hems.  

Well, the latest version of the Eva dress will be the last one for awhile. There are other projects that I need to get to and Mama R has been patiently waiting for another dress or two. I should get to work on those.    

The Stats:  

Fabric:  2.7 metres 100% silk

Seam binding:  2.8 metres 

Fusible Tape:  1 metre Knit-N-Stable™ tape

Pattern:  The Eva Dress by Tessuti patterns

Additional Tools and Supplies:  Cutting table, silk pins, scissors, thread clippers, iron, ironing board, sewing machine, walking foot, serger, threads for the sewing machine and serger, measuring tape, tailor's chalk, tailor's ham, sleeve ham, good tunes and coffee.  

Happy Sewing!