So I am going to a hen do next Saturday and it was dropped on us last week that we are required to wear a black dress for the evening...

Of course I decided that none of the six RTW black dresses I own was suitable, so I had to make one.

Being a rebel, I decided to make a culottes playsuit out of a piece of black silk dupion from my stash. I dyed a piece of white cotton lawn blue for the underlining (I later found a packet of hot pink dye, which would have been better, but it's too late now).

It has a sheer yoke of white dress net on the front, finished with bias binding. There are straps and an exposed zip on the back.

The cutting out was the tightest fit I've ever worked with, as the silk was quite narrow and the culottes are very full. I cut the underlining first on the fold, and then used those pieces to cut the silk in one layer.



The fabric was super fray-y so I just cut the fabric roughy and then trimmed down each piece as I got to it.

With my tight timeframe, I took a lot of shortcuts, whilst still trying to keep to couture techniques where I could. So I attached the fabric and underlining by machine, and I used a nice fusible cotton interfacing from my stash, instead of silk organza. I planned to just pink the seams, but unfortunately it was so fray-y that I had to bind them all. I did use purchased bias binding, though.

I hemmed the culottes with bias binding, and hand sititched it up. Half way through the massive circle, I wished I'd done a blind hem on the machine, but it's almost finished now and I'm very happy with it.

I also added an extra layer to the front bodice which I sewed a RTW bra into. The bra wings extend out beyond the fabric so that I can fasten it separately and it does the job of a waist stay, taking the weight off the fragile net yoke. Boyfriend pointed out that the bra wings are a horrible colour, so I have ordered some blue fabric paint to sort that out! I also accidently sewed the bra to the wrong side, so the darts are visible. And I didn't bother changing thread so there are lots of ugly black stitching lines on the inside of the bodice. I may handstitch in a bodice lining at a later date to sort this out, but I don't have time before Saturday, and realistically I probably won't bother... I may add some dress shields before the weekend if I get time.

I will finish the hem and get a photo up this evening.

Yes, BrendaP - it's still rather tricky to wiggle out of, but it's doable!!

So pretty much all that's left to do is hemming (it's all pinned in place) and then I want to add some bra catches to keep the shoulders in place and some dress shields under the arms.

The trouble is I'm just not sure about it.  I tried it on again last night and I do like it a lot (which is good, because I thought I didn't). The problem is I'm worried that it looks a bit too Asian (much more so than I was expecting), so I am a bit worried about cultural appropriation and looking a bit silly, especially as we have been told it is 'not an Asian wedding'. I will get some pictures up soon and you can all give opinions! Plus I have my mum and my sewing friend round next weekend so they can have a look as well.

Thanks! Yes they are straight but I have already done the finishing on the front so would have to undo that to make it skinnier too.

For some reason I've got a bit of a mental block on this, so I just wondered if there was an obvious solution I was missing.

Haha it's definitely a Marmite dress if you look at the reviews!

Well I actually did it deliberately because I was going to finish it with bias binding but now I have changed my mind and want facing instead. 

It's a back strap for a dress (two of them) so I'm thinking something like add some fusible interfacing and steal some from the seam allowance on the other side of the strap (which I fortunately didn't remove) but then my notches would be in the wrong place... Do I need to make a whole new pattern piece with 1/4" seam allowances at each side and recut from the existing pieces?

The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that my fabric is fraying like billy-o, hence the feeling I would need to add fusible or something to smaller seam allowances.

No fabric left to cut them again correctly, unfortunately.

Anyone got an easy fix?

Thanks! I usually make my own too - hence the not wanting to buy extra, but I'm very tight on both time and fabric for this project so I'm cutting all the corners. I'm even considering a machine topstitched hem but hopefully it won't come to that!

I have one of those discs of 25m of bias binding, of which I estimate I have already used 5-10m. So 15-20m left give or take. Is this enough to hong kong finish all my seams in a circle skirt dress, bind the neckline, face the front and back and hem my circle skirt? Dress quite short but it's actually a culottes playsuit, so a little bit more hem. Seams would all be pressed open, so bound on both sides. It looks like plently, but I always seem to underestimate on bias binding!

I'm on quite a tight deadline so if I need more I have to get it ordered, can't just wait and see.

I use curtain lining fabric. I buy it 10m at a time off eBay.