Silk Saltspring maxi dress, I love you!

I got very excited when I saw the new pattern from Sewaholic, The Saltspring dress! I haven't sewed any of Tasia's patterns before and I had been hoping for a good excuse to buy them. The Saltspring Sew-Along was my perfect excuse!

The gorgeous necklace is from AVP Design

I wanted to make the maxi version and then in a solid colour. Which was very difficult when I went to the fabric store in Italy and saw all their gorgeous printed silks.. But I stayed strong and bought 3 meters of beautiful black silk.
Thanks to the Sarai from Colette Patterns, I now know what kind of silk it is, it is crepe de chine.  She gave us a very useful fabric guide with swatches at the Mood seminar. I'm in love with this type of silk after using it to make my self dyed silk shirts with it.

As far as alterations go, I didn't make a muslin. I cut a size 2 for the waist and skirt (I actually could have cut a size 0 for the skirt, but I figured a size 2 would work as well). Then I graded out to a size 6 for the top. I'd read that the pattern is made for people who are 165 cm in height. I'm 170 cm, so I added 5 cm to the length. After hemming the dress with a narrow hem, it turned out a little bit short, so next time I will add 10 cm just to be sure.

After trying the dress on without a zipper I omitted the zipper. The only thing I'm wondering now is how to finish the back slit? I serged with pink thread, but I'm afraid it will show when the back slit falls open a bit. After thinking about it I decided to slip stitch the slit closed. It turned out beautiful, but in the pictures you see every little stitch showing...

I also think that I might have to lengthen the bodice next time, as the elastic sits a bit high. I did cut the straps a little short on purpose, so  that when they stretch everything will be fine. Maybe thats why the elastic sits a little bit higher. Or maybe I have a longer torso (I felt the same about my Belladone dress).

For the straps I wanted something else, so I braided three straps togethers, luckily they were long enough so there was no need to make six straps. Turning them right side out was a bit easier with the help of a bobby pin as Tasia suggests, but it still took me a whole episode of Australia's Project Runway..

Braiding the straps

Since these straps tend to stretch a bit it was quite difficult to determine the right length. I had my boyfriend help me, but he found it a bit difficult as well, so in the end I just sewed the front part of the straps to the bodice, then stretched the hell out of the straps and then pinned them to the back. I had to adjust them like 5 times and then it was quite difficult to get them at the same length.. Somehow the positions seemed to change when sewing, but in the end I got them at the same length :)

Bijschrift toevoegen

I messed up a bit on the first skirt piece, with lining up the pockets, so it was looking a bit sad and strange.. I unpicked the stitches and resewed them, very happy now! Yay!

Very uneven..

Ahh yes, the seam ripper..

I finished the seams with my overlocker and I used pink thread for a nice little pop of colour, however, now I think it looks kinda gothic, but who cares?

The Sew-Along was very good, there were a lot of nifty tips and tricks and it definitely made it easier to sew up this dress.. I also find it very helpful to be able to see photo's of the steps instead of only drawings. Overall I'm super happy with this dress, it feels super floaty when I'm wearing it!

I will leave you with this super cute pic of my dogs..

A very lazy saturday