A complicated project

I decided I'd go to Frocktails Montreal. It's next week. Naturally I'd need a new frock.

Stash diving ensued.

Do you know that I own many Ralph Rucci patterns but had never taken one out to actually make? And that for quite a few years, I had a particular piece of fabric mentally earmarked for one of them? It's Vogue 1239, a very quirky wrap dress with distinct kimono influence.

Take a look at the line drawing - such INTERESTING seams! This is a pattern with darts that need to be slashed before being sewn (because they change direction mid-way) and it has topstitching everywhere. It is fully lined and the lining pieces have the same quirky details. The instructions extend to 67 paragraphs.

This pattern is rated "Average"??? Vogue has lost its mind! But I love a sewing challenge and it has been a while since I've had one.

I discovered that I bought the fabric in 2007 (the bill was still folded with the fabric) at a sadly now gone Montreal store called Tissus Tuéni. That was a beautiful store with such interesting and very high quality fabric choices. The proprietor (very European) hand-wrote the bill in spiky longhand.

I also discovered that I had purchased 2.5 metres of the fabric. Oops. The pattern calls for 4.0 metres! Did I say that I love a challenge?

The recommended layout for this dress is bizarre. It turns out that 1.5 metres is what's needed for the excessively long and bias-cut belt. Who needs a self fabric belt? Not me! My 2.5 metres is exactly the right amount for just the dress, including rudimentary pattern matching.

Click to zoom in for more detail!

I wish I knew exactly what the composition of this fabric is. It has some wool, for sure, but the woven-in pattern in a shiny fibre is something else, like maybe rayon, or acetate? Dunno. The contrast between the ridged and woolly texture of the background and the satiny sheen of the irregular squares is one of the reasons why I was attracted to the piece. The fact that the woven-in squares contain further woven-in patterns that look like, but evidently are not actually letters is another. The rich orange-y rusty colour was something that appealed greatly to me at the time, which is lucky, because further stash diving revealed that I had also bought, maybe a few years later, many skins of lamb leather in pretty much exactly the same colour!

You see where I'm going with the leather, don't you? The belt. A friend loaned me a belt she had picked up that is an elongated curved obi, with ties that wrap around. I have a big can of rubber cement and some stiffer leather for structure, and the belt is partly done.

I absolutely must finish this dress this weekend, so will reveal the entire thing in a later post. À plus tard...