In Progress

So what is on the sewing table here in Frogland?  This lovely little sheath dress from the May 2008 issue of Burda World of Fashion:

The fashion photo isn't great.  It's always hard to tell what a garment looks like when it's shown made up in black .  You have to take a look at the tech drawing to really see the great details in this dress.

This is a princess seamed sheath (one of my favorite styles) with some really nice gathering on the skirt and bodice.  The gathered part of the skirt is actually an overlay.  The underskirt is plain with two darts.  The overskirt is caught into the right side seam and the gathers are caught into the dart on the left side.  I haven't gotten to that part in the construction process, so I will have to let you know how it goes.  I imagine precision marking and sewing will be required.

The back of the dress is all one piece with vertical darts and a center back zipper.  It's also fully lined.  I plan to use the "edge to edge" lining technique to finish the neck and armholes.

I'm using the grey linen/rayon/silver lurex blend fabric that I picked up from Hancock's back in May.  I originally thought to make a pair of wide leg pants out of it, but I decided a sheath would be more suitable.   The dress is interesting, but conservative, so I thought the extra little sparkle of the lurex would give it a little pop.  So far the fabric is behaving. It was easy to cut and it's easy to sew.  I was worried about pressing it, but so far I've had no problems. 

I'd really like to get this dress finished this weekend.  The August issue of Burda Style arrived last week and I really want to make a couple of things in there.  If only there were a couple more hours in the day.

How is your sewing going?  Are you still sewing for summer, or have you begun sewing for fall?