I made this dress for a Masquerade Charity Ball we attended last year. It’s made from bright orange Silk De Chine which I purchased online. At the time it was the only silk material I owned and as I had no other backup dresses I was too scared to start it! I made a practice/muslin see here and eventually built up the courage three nights before the ball. We actually had a public holiday that week (for Genghis Khan’s Birthday ) but I massively procrastinated and I ended up working the whole day – I was that worried.

The day of the ball I acutally thought I was making good time so I did a 10km run on my treadmill (it’s too cold to go outside). Big mistake! As I was huridly sewing the hem my leg was shaking like crazy on the peddle. I also had to hand sitch the lining while at the hair dresser.

I used a standard sweetheart shape for the bodice and ironed on a few layers of fusible interfacing. A ‘U’ shape piece of material was sewn into the front and back seams to make the ruffle. I overlapped a layer of fabric for the bottom and sewed a few stitches part way down to reduce the length of the split. Although, looking at these photos I should have done it a little lower!

This is the first full length dress I’ve made and the first time I had sewn with silk but apart from a few crinkles in the bodice, I’m pretty happy with it. It’s floaty and very fun to wear.

The only problem (and I have no idea how this happened) is that I have a foot print hear the hem of the dress. I’ve tried soaking it but all it did was lose some colour. Any tips on how to wash silk at home?

Fabric: Silk Crepe De Chine
Pattern: Self made