party dress

Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice holiday break and I wish you all the very best for 2016!Let’s start the new year with last year’s last make, the Holiday Seda dress.

I had in mind making a Seda dress in velvet for a few weeks now and I thought Christmas and New Year’s Eve were perfect occasions for such a dress.

I mixed view A and view B to make this Seda: the skirt of view A looks just as good with the bodice of view B. What other changes did I make? I added a full lining to the dress. In order to add a lining to view B, I just constructed the lining following the instructions for view A but with the elbow length sleeves instead of the short ones. When the lining was ready, I folded and pressed the seam allowances toward the wrong side on the neckline, sleeve hem and center back edges.

Then you just need some patience (or an evening on the sofa with TV, as you prefer) and you handstitch the lining to the dress seam allowances (you can use a fell-stitch or a slip-stitch). I know that handstitching is not everybody’s favorite sewing activity but I really like the control you get and it’s nice to work slowly sometimes.

As for the fabrics I used, I chose a midnight blue silk velvet for the body and plumetis tulle for the shoulder yoke. If you want some tips on sewing with velvet, you’ll find them in the previous post. As I explained there, velvet is quite difficult to sew with, it moves so much, you need extra care with the iron… making this dress was not easy! You see, velvet fabris slips when the right sides are together, so a dress like Seda with so many seams and darts was not the best choice for this delicate fabric.

But in the end, I’m very happy with the result. The dress looks elegant and the tulle yoke adds some nice contrast (the tulle edges are binded with black bias binding made from the lining fabric).

Fun fact: velvet is very slippery and eventhough I basted all the seams together before sewing, my seam allowances ended up being larger than supposed… which means the dress is quite tight on me! On New Year’s Eve dinner, I thought more than once that the zipper was going to break 😉

Between the holidays coming very soon now and the end of wedding season (which will come back soon enough), I wanted to make a new dress. A dress I could wear everyday and for parties. And this dress, you’ve guessed, is the new pattern: the SEDA dress !!!

View A: linen from Cousette

During the summer, I told Anne, my intern, about such a dress: off-the-shoulder neckline with a silhouette very much inspired by the 50’s. The first thing she told me was “Ok, that nice, but how can I wear a bra with such a dress?” Good point Anne! Being a very small B cup myself, I hadn’t thought about more “gifted” women 😉
And that how the Seda dress pattern was born, view A… and B!

View B: chambray from Henry&Henriette, lace from Cousette

View A has that deep off-the-shoulder neckline, to show off the shoulders with just a hint of sexy… The short sleeves stay put thanks to an elastic and the bodice and hip yoke are lined for comfort. The front and back darts on the bodice and yoke accentuate the waistline and the skirt, fully gathered at the hip, create a silhouette worthy of an Hitchcock heroine.

Easier to wear everyday, view B starts with the ame bodice but with the addition of a shoulder yoke. You can play with contrasting fabric or color, transparency with lace… The 3/4 sleeves can easily be replaced by the short ones of view A and vice-versa. And no party dress is complete without a full skirt… with pockets of course!

Both views are closed with an invisible zipper in the back, and for view B, a small button or an hook and eye set close the shoulder yoke.
The Seda dress can be made in lots of different fabrics: here in linen and chambray, in cotton, light wool or flannel for winter, velvet, raw silk, lace…I hope you’ll like the Seda dress pattern, I’ll be back soon with some tutorials. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Buy the Seda dress pattern here: SEDA DRESS.
Check out the first testers’ versions: Anne, Céline.

Velvet Seda Dress

Seda Dress Pattern