SEWN: THE ANNIVERSARY DRESS

Ten years.

In two weeks time I'll have been married to my sweetheart for 10 years.

I can't believe how quickly it's gone by.

And we've been together for something like 20 years. Hoo-wee!

This is my anniversary dress. An I really don't get out much dress. A me-and-he weekend away for only the second time in over 5 years kind of dress. A very special I want you to remember how beautiful I can be kind of dress.

And I feel very beautiful.

This is the Flutter Tunic from Papercut Patterns. I really wasn't completely sold on this for me. I'd flirted with the pattern, but it was only the advent of a Papercut Patterns birthday sale recently that pushed me over the edge. And I am glad.

When I originally picked this fabric, an Italian viscose/cotton delustered satin called On Parade, for my next Pitt Trading project* I actually thought I'd make a top. But the print is so glorious, and the fabric so special, I knew it had to be a simple elegant dress to really make the fabric queen.

I made a size XS from shoulder to waist, grading to an S at the hip and bottom hem. I did toile this first to ensure no major alterations were needed and was ecstatic to find it fit perfectly. Even the French darts finished at the exactly right point on my bust. That never happens for me without an SBA.

The pattern suggests binding the neckline (and the pattern pictures show the sleeve hems bound as well) with self-fabric or contrasting binding that can be seen from the outside. I'm not a fan of exposed bias binding for me, so I used a silvery grey satin acetate bias binding as a facing on the neckline, hand blind-stitched down on the inside.

I couldn't make self-fabric bias as this fabric frayed like a maniac. Seriously, it came undone faster than a business executive at a yoga retreat. The fraying sent me into a mad panic that nearly required me packing myself off to said yoga retreat.

I was forced to serge the raw edges of most of the cut fabric pieces and sew the rest like a business executive needing a trip to a yoga retreat to get it constructed before the fraying ate my (very miserly) 1cm seam allowances. Weirdly I noticed it frayed on the cut crossgrain edges, but barely at all on the cut grainline edges. So my neckline, sleeve head and hem, and dress hem were at serious risk of being eaten up. I added one inch to the length at the lengthen line on the pattern, which makes it the exact finished length of all my me-made sack like dresses. When you're onto a good thing...

I also hand blind-stitched the sleeve and skirt hems as I really didn't want any visible topstitching to mar the perfection of this print.

In the end I'm really liking the oddly curved and dropped shoulder, the fluttery sleeves and the cheeky hi-lo hem. And how well it pairs with my me-made bronze leather clutch.

And with that, I'm off to knock my husband's socks off.

*Thanks go to Pitt Trading who provided my choice of fabric free of charge for this project in exchange for images of my completed make for their use. Opinions are all my own.