We had a big holiday in March which include two days in Kuala Lumpar visiting family. I managed to include a trip to the quarter with all the fabric shops in. Of course I had to buy  a few lengths…

The turquoise one on the right is actually pure silk, it’s quite a heavy, drapy silk with a lovely soft sheen. I loved the pattern on it, they had this style of fabric in dozens of colourways and subtly different patterns, I was spoilt for choice and just couldn’t make my mind up, in the end my OH chose this one!

As we are having a bit of a heatwave at the moment I decided it would be rather nice as a simple summer dress. I made a dress just before we went away which turned out to be one of those dresses you could just live in on holiday, cool, comfortable, smart/casual…in fact I wore it that much it could have walked off the plane on it’s own!!

It was Burda pattern 2943, one of their super-easy range, I made it in an etched cotton lawn.

I decided it would be lovely made up in the slinky, drapy silk. It was actually lovely fabric to sew with, although it’s drapy, it’s quite a firm fabric, it doesn’t move all over the place when you’re trying to cut it out, it doesn’t slip and slide when you’re trying to sew patterns. In fact it was so unlike silk to sew that I double checked the content listed on the selvage with Google translate, 100% Seta.

I also cut a 6″ square and popped it through the wash. it came out perfect, not even fraying! Despite the initial lack of fraying I decided to overstitch the side seams, with the cotton dress I had used french seams, but I felt it would be too bulky in the silk.

Having made the basic dress I had a bit of a conundrum over the finishing of the neck and arm holes. The pattern uses a folded strip of bias fabric but with the cotton dress I had made a facing instead. I actually have a length of fabric which would have lined it perfectly, however I did feel that having made a cool, silk dress I didn’t want to line it in a hot synthetic fabric! In the end I decided to try the bias tape method. It’s basically made in the same way you bind a quilt, the folded strip is stitched on the seam line, then folded to the inside and stitched down. I’m always concerned about the bulk with this type of finishing as you end up with seven layers of fabric, a lot more at seams.

I was pleasantly surprised at the result of the binding method. OK, it’s a firm edge, but it feels fine to wear and looks pretty neat I think.

I’m really pleased with this dress, it feels lovely to wear, it just sort of slinks into place as you put it on!! I think it will be lovely to wear when I go out to lunch with friends. ..and even better I can pop it in the wash afterwards!