When I put something into my head, I have to put it into practice. No matter how much time it takes. With this dress it was about 7 hours for embroidering alone. But I am soooo happy with the final result, so the effort was absolutely worth it!
I originally wanted to use the olive leather jersey for my lace dress that I made recently. But the fabric wasn’t enough for that, so it became a summer dress. I wanted to sew a Maxidress variant for myself anyway and it was not only long enough for this, but also optically perfect and drapes very nicely around my body.
For the decoration it had to be gold, I am no silver type at all. So I bought a lot of pearls and sequins. I wanted to have a big choice of different beads so I could experiment with them. My last embroideries were great too, but always limited to 2-3 beads or sequin. But this time I wanted to be really creative.
First I drew the rough design on pattern paper and then transferred it to the dress using stitching thread. Because of the details coming very close to the upper edge, I sewed the dress together first and embroidered it afterwards, even if it would have been easier for embroidering the other way around. But especially my overlock doesn’t like to sew over bumps and so the seam wouldn’t have turned out nice. So it had to be a bit more complicated. But no matter how you do it, sewing every single piece by hand just takes its time. And one day I wasn’t enough finish it either. As an absolute thimble refuser, the ring finger with which I push the needle through the fabric hurt me a lot. Now – a few days later – the cornea slowly comes off again 😉
The fabric is rather heavy and due to its length it has even more weight than a mini dress, so I had to add straps to it. I sewed them from the jersey. Do you see here how the embroidery runs all the way to the back? That was very important to me, that it goes beyond the side seams and doesn’t just look ‘clapped on’ to the front 😉
Admittedly, the fabric sounds a bit weird when walking, compared to cotton or viscose jersey it is quite loud. But it also feels soft as butter and therefore I don’t care about the sound. By the way, I got another family heirloom here – a watch. I rarely wear a wristwatch, especially because I don’t usually think about wearing one. But this one is inherited and therefore, like the jewellery, it is of particular value to me personally. In such matters I become a little bit sentimental and even if I didn’t have much of a relationship to my grandparents, a souvenir is something nice <3.
Well, what do you think of my dress? Was it worth the effort? By the way, I actually went for grocery shopping with it, even though I got some weird looks for my outfit. But also here it would be a shame to let it get dusty in the closet – I prefer to wear it in everyday life and enjoy all the bling bling <3 Because I do really like it! You too?
Love, Carina
:-*
Sewing pattern: Summer Dress by Sewera
Fabric: by-Mami
Photos: Wartenweiler Fotografie
Watch: Rado
