She wanted something simple but sparkle around the neckline and in the color combination Red and Black. She also sent me a image (below) of a salwar kameez with a golden and bronze hemline, she wanted a similar hemline!
Luckily i had bought tissue fabric in gold, bronze and silver when i had been to India last December. So all that was left was to shop for Red and Black cotton fabric, which should be easier to find right, well not quite!
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The difficulty in this project for me was the size in which i had to make the dress , a size XXL or US 14. A Size which i had never made before, so i had asked her for a 'fit'size dress or kurti, which i can use to make the draft, she did send one, but by mistake it was a size large and without much shape in US 16 and boxy fit, so i decided to leave it alone and draft a pattern from the scratch!
Pattern drafting took a day for me. First drafted a pattern with darts and then decided to take them away , the skirt pattern was more slash and spread and hence lot easier than the bodice. The book Perfect Plus by Kathleen Cheetham had been of great help as i initially traced the US size14 bodice draft from there and then worked on it to custom fit my client, who had mailed me her measurements. I have not seen her in person so far, all this was done online! After the pattern had been drafted, i had no time to do muslin! , since my parents were in town (yes, a week after my in-laws left, my parents arrived) and was busy showing them around the town, had booked a holiday for them in penanag for 4 days and it meant i had to finish the dress of in the span of those 4 days, of which 1 day had already been spent drafting and another day in sewing up the kundan motifs on the neckline!
I took the risk as i crossed checked the drafted pattern with the measurements of my client and once i was satisfied that it matched mostly, decided to cut the main fabric! Sewed up the bodice in main and lining fabric and let them rest! Then added the hemline tissue fabric to the main fabric on the skirt portion. I was skeptical as to whether tissue fabric will lay flat and nice on the main fabric and how will it drape once worn, but it turned out all good in the end!
Dress is self lined. Has a zipper at the back, decided to have overlapped zipper at the back and got tired of searching for a tutorial of overlapped zipper on a lined dress, so decided to figure it out myself and i am glad i spent half a day in figuring the best way out, now i will not use invisible zippers and instead use overlapped zipper , be it on a side seam or back seam as i can now confidently say, I have found a good way of sewing it ! The sleeve is not lined, so i cant say it is a fully lined dress zipper but i guess i can have a work around for that too. Anyone as any ideas on how to do that as i had to leave my armhole seams open and sewed up my neckline and then the zipper with main and lining fabric with a small bit for neckline on the overlapping side. Does this make any sense, never mind i plan to make a mini-photo op on scrap fabric to show what i did on this dress zipper soon, so that i can get more ideas from you all to make it even more effective on lined dresses
Can You spot the Overlap and Zipper !
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Once the zipper was done, all that was left was to sew side seams and add sleeves. Ta Da the dress was ready, i checked if i had left any pins left in the dress, after convincing myself that there was none, packed the dress and informed the client.
I was nervous for the next 2 days as i waited for my client's response and when i got the response. Thanks! I really like the dress! It fits me well. Thanks for creating it as i had imagined! - Made every minute i had spent on the dress, well worth it. Plus Size clothing fear Conquered ! Yay Pin It
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Beautiful! I always love looking at your creations.
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