Party Outfit
Labels: home life, sew gorgeous
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
(This took place before Christmas 2007)
What's a girl to do when she just can't find seem to find the right skirt to match her top for the big family Christmas party?
If she's had formal training in fashion design, she first curses the shops in Maastricht for wasting her time, pulls out tracing paper, measuring tape and ruler thereafter proceeding to draft the skirt she has envisioned for her 19.90 euro bustier top from H&M which would be arriving by post shortly.
The design was simple - a full, gathered skirt with a fitted hip yoke.
Then came the fabric. I knew straightaway it had to be this black embroidered lace I kept in my stash cupboard. I bought this lace about 10 years ago from Arab Street but never had the heart to cut it. It's accompanied me all this way. But this was no time to be sentimental. I was in need of a skirt. Said skirt was begging for this lace and that was that. For the yoke, I used black duchesse satin, leftovers from another evening gown I made for a formal dinner years ago. It is still hanging in my wardrobe back home. I wonder if it still fits me.
Anyhow.
To give the skirt a little more body, I sewed a tulle petticoat comprising of 3 layers of soft netting. I wanted to break the monotony of the lace design so I stitched 2 rows of grossgrain ribbon of different widths on the lower portion of the skirt. The whole project took me 2 evenings and I was mighty pleased at how purdy my holiday outfit was coming along. Then came the final fitting. Everything looked okay but it still lacked a certain something. Epiphany came in the form of a belt. I need a belt! So it was back to the drafting table and sewing machine. Another evening and voila,
The finished garment:
On the left is the outfit as is, on the right is the entire ensemble with the faux fur stole, satin Swarovski clutch purse, new Ferragamos from the mothership store in Florence and last but not least, my strand of pearls.
Going by the photos, you could never tell that an hour and a half ago, I was doing battle with the rabbit stew and ratatouille, my contributions for the evening, nor could you tell it was 2oC outside when the photo was snapped in our backyard, could you? The things we bloggers do for a post entry.....
The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 10:43 pm
: July 03, 2008 12:26 am
It was COLD outside - thank goodness Hubs takes quick photos or I would've been very cross and very frozen.
: July 04, 2008 10:20 amNow that I have blog access, I've been catching up with what you've been up to in the kitchen and in your recent trip to Beijing.
It's me, Mrs Jones from M4M!! hee..
OH.MI-GOD.
Can you sew my baju kurong for me next time??;)
That is one gorgeous skirt..!!!
care to share hw to do the skirt? I got loads of unused satin cloth n lace hahaha
Thanks for the compliment. It's easier for me to show you in person how to make the skirt than to do a tutorial in the blog but you can buy paper patterns from Spotlight and easily make one yourself.
: July 23, 2008 12:29 pm