Last weekend, I worked in the garden to prepare our outdoor space for spring/summer. I cleaned the tiles with pressure washer, I washed the flower pots from last year and I planted new flowers. It really felt great to touch the soil and organize the plants. It reminded me of our summer house on the mountain in Turkey when I was a child. I imagined my father working in the garden, cleaning the weeds around the flowers. He used to plant a whole different types of flowers hibiscus, roses, snapdragons, daisies... After a long day of work, he used to sit in the garden and enjoy the view from the above. Remembering that scene, gave me immediate peace. It also reminded me of the flower dress that I made last year in March. I spent hours hand sewing, the dress has so much value for me and finally I can share the details with you.
Inspiration
When it is about flower print, I instantly think about Erdem Moralioglu. He is a British fashion designer with Turkish descent. He is known for his soft sweeping dresses with floral prints. His prints are always captivating. Below looks are my favorites from 2010 FW and SS collections. Both very feminine, romantic and comfortable to wear. He always seems to find the best way to connect comfort, elegance and femininity in his designs, which has always inspired me.
Pattern making
I used draping method on the mannequin to realize this pattern. First I draped the design I had in mind with blanc canvas fabric.
The next step was to the transfer the drape on the flat pattern. Before doing that, I marked all style lines, notches and important folds. Than, I unpinned the fabric and lay it flat on the pattern paper and transferred all pattern pieces to the paper. I finished by adding seam allowances and cutting all the pattern pieces on the paper.
Sewing
The fabric for this project was a vintage silk fabric from Italian manufacturer. I found it in the local deadstock fabric outlet. It has a satin finish and medium weight.
I only had 1,2 meters of the fabric so it was a real puzzle to fit in all of the pieces.
I am glad that it fit, because that was the last piece of that fabric remaining in the shop :)
I saved all of the remnants as usual to use them in future for other projects.
Once I lay all the pattern pieces, I pinned them carefully using very thin needles, not to damage the delicate fabric.
I cut out the patterns out of the silk using a very sharp scissor. Never underestimate the importance of a good quality sharp scissor when cutting silk. A blunt scissor can easily ruin your fabric.
In order to fit the patterns on the fabric, I didn't follow the grainlines for some of the small pattern pieces. In order to avoid unwanted stretch, I had to strengthen these patterns with interlining before I proceeded with sewing.
I sew the front and back pieces on the sewing machine to have clean lines.
Then I moved on to the mannequin and draped and basted the final pieces together on the mannequin.
This helped me to correct any errors along the way before I made a definitive stitch on the machine avoiding any unnecessary damage on the fabric.
The shoulder pieces had facings and I sandwiched shoulder pads in between to have an elevated look.
I finished the armholes by hand sewing on the mannequin, purely because I couldn't afford to damage the fabric if I didn't like how the arms sit after the final stitches. I also made fabric covered small buttons using a part of the remnants. I tried to match the colors with the underlying print to blend the buttons with the background :)
Final look
I hope you enjoy the final look of the dress. If you decide to try making your own version I'll be happy to help you. Just send me a message on Instagram or write a comment here :)
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Cheers,
Idil