So, in case you haven’t seen it, I have a bit of a thing for the Duplantier Dress by Elbe textiles.

So much so that I’ve already made it three times.

• 

• 

• 

But, what can I say, when I saw this transparent checked silk from The Fabric Store, I knew I wanted another one!

The blog post that I’ve linked to above talks a lot about my Duplantier Dress experience and my modifications to the pattern, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here.

The short story for this black silk dress is as follows. This is size E with the view B sleeve. I have extended the front bodice length to hit very slightly above my natural waist, so it is no longer a baby doll style dress. And I’ve replaced the skirt with three gathered tiers. Each tier is approximately 25cm in length, plus seam or hem allowance.

That, in a couple of sentences, is actually all that I need to share about this Duplantier Dress.

But don’t worry, I won’t stop just yet.

Now, the obvious issue with sewing anything in sheer silk is that you have to figure out a plan to ensure that you’re, you know, not visibly nearly naked!

I feel that it is actually a bit of a struggle to identify sewing patterns which work well with transparent fabrics. The Wilder Gown is a popular choice for this, but I’m not convinced I would be happy with ruffle around my neck.

And it’s the neckline where most issues arise. How best to finish the neckline where anything underneath will be visible?

For this one, I wasn’t sure whether to draft a special facing or just follow the design as planned, which uses the centre back and front piece twice to finish of the neckline.

In the end, I decided that since both options would be visible anyway, I would just decided to follow the pattern as designed. This does mean that my centre bodice pieces look different than the rest of the dress. But once I have a slip on underneath, I don’t think it looks that obvious and it actually doesn’t bother me at all.

Sadie Slip Tessuti Patterns

So the essential accompaniment to this Duplantier Dress is that I needed to make a slip to go with it. My slip dress is made from a plain black silk satin, also from The Fabric Store.

I took some photos of the slip by itself but none that I could actually post because, you know, visible nipple alert!

I looked at a few possible slip dress patterns and decided to go with Sadie Slip Dress by Tessuti Patterns because I liked its absolute simplicity. I also wanted it to be done as quickly as possible!

It is a bias cut slip dress and it really is that fabric on the bias that does all the work.

I have to admit that I was really not looking forward to making the slip. It felt like a necessary sewing chore in order to make my Duplantier Dress work.

But I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really liked this pattern. It’s only downside is that, when putting it on and off, the facing can sometimes turn out a little, but I’m not sure how to solve that without stitching the whole thing down (it is already understitched and secured at the side seam) which would be ugly as hell in this fabric. So I can live with the minor inconvenience of checking that my facings are still tucked in after putting this on!!

My Sadie Slip dress is a medium at the bust, graded to a large at the waist downwards.

Maybe I’ve only every really experienced bias cut garments in cheap RTW fabric, but I’ve always felt, as someone with curves in places that our current western cultural norms considers undesirable, that bias cut garments might cling to me in all the wrong places!

Well the only one wrong was me and I was actually quite amazed at how the fabric really does all the work in making this pattern feel easy and great.

Also, cheers to the instructions of Tessuti Patterns for finally teaching me how to use a sewing tool I’ve had for about 8 years. In all those years, I’ve only ever been able to get my loop turned to work maybe once and twice and had basically given up using it.

I’d become a chop stick fan instead!

But a chopstick is too thick for making a genuine spaghetti strap like the ones in the Sadie Slip Dress.

But, never fear, because the Sadie Slip Dress instructons actually showed me how to use my loop turner correctly and I need never look at spaghetti straps in abject fear again!

Yeah.

I love that every sewing pattern can still teach us new things.

By the way, speaking of turning out tubes, the other thing I learned sewing my silk Duplantier Dress is that you can’t really turn the ties right-side-out when they’re made out of transparent silk. Loop turner. Chop sticks. The fabric is just so delicate that it destroys it. So I had to sew my ties a different way so that no turning out was needed and I just top-stitiched it all together from the right side.

All in all, this silk Duplantier Dress has turned out exactly as I had hoped.

And the best part is that I felt like my sewing “chore” of sewing the Sadie Slip Dress, actually resulted in a pattern which I really like and may return to in its own right.

So what’s not love about this project!

•