Creation: Donna Karan Autumn Hemp Silk Wrap Dress

Fabrics Used: Autumn Hemp Silk Charmeuse

The Visionary: Rebecca, Sew Pomona

Our Thoughts: Rebecca at Sew Pomona made an exquisite Silk Wrap dress using our Silk Charmeuse as a birthday gift to herself. So beautiful and elegant!

 

 

Today is my 40th Birthday!!!   I promised myself this year I’d be wearing something fabulous to celebrate. Check out what I’ll be decked out in-Donna Karan for Vogue Collections Wrap Dress in the most beautiful Hemp Silk Charmeuse.  This fabric looks like liquid gold-it’s a stunner!

 

 

 

 

 

This Donna Karan Pattern, V1384, has been in my sewing queue since I first started this blog two years ago.  I loved the fabric it was shown in-a crisp pink silk-but wondered where I could ever wear something so formal.  But once I saw this fabric the dress seemed like an inspired choice.  I graded this pattern from a 12 at the bust down to a 14 at the hips for ease of wear. 

I can’t rave enough about how this dress is drafted.  It’s such a clever design how the facings are attached and then the lining is bagged.  This dress is beautiful inside and out.  I’m a sucker for interesting darts!  They really shape the dress and make the fit.  What I love most about this dress though is it’s versatility.  I can wear it how it was designed but it also makes a fabulous modern cut jacket.  That’s how I’ll be wearing it today- over a navy knit midi dress with some pretty seaming (another new make!) which keeps it a bit more casual.

 

 

I don’t know about you but I never dry clean anything.  I haven’t in years.  I made sure to hand wash my fabric as soon as it arrived and hung it to dry to make sure I wouldn’t have any issues laundering this dress.  No spotting and it looked just as lovely.

This dress is cut on the bias so it does use a lot more fabric then a typical knee-length dress.   I used all of the 4 yards in length-the fabric is 56″ wide.  I was right at the edge cutting the last pieces. My tip for cutting bias pieces easily- make a nice fold on the grainline of your pattern pieces to easily line them up before cutting.  It really makes layout easier-especially with shiny fabric.

This dress was made almost completely on my regular sewing machine with quite a bit of hand finishing for all the hems.  I went back and redid the hem you see in these pictures to make it invisible from the exterior with catch stitches.  I didn’t like the line it made at the hem-though that is the way it’s sewn based on the instructions.