Sequin Dress Finished (with Photos!)

This is my New Year's Eve gown.  I was rather pleased with how it turned out, especially since I didn't cut it out until about 3pm on the 30th.  It was all done but the hem by about 9:30.

This is good old Vogue 1250 lengthened and with a baby train.  Very similar to a tan knit gown I made and have loved.  This is however, the first time I've worked with a sequined fabric.  Nancy and Sharon found this for me in Santa Fe and insisted that it was 'me'.  It was also a fantastic bargain, and I was an easy sell. 

I think I was very lucky in the construction of the fabric itself, as it's a 2-way stretch knit (widthwise, which is the usual), and I didn't have a lot of trouble with sequins coming loose when I cut the fabric.  A lot of the information I read talked about taping the cut edges, etc., and I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do that.  I did end up doing almost all of the sewing by hand, with a backstitch.  The end result was much more attractive that way.  The way the sequins were applied, they 'lined up', and I could sew between them, and then  pull them out onto the face of the fabric from the allowances where I needed to.  The holes in the sequins were very near one edge, and so if you happened to stitch through one, or close it into the allowance when it really needed to be on the right side, you'd have a fairly large gap.  You can see that the face is not perfectly even, and so a little variation isn't noticeable, but I didn't want 'bald' seams.

One 'exciting' revelation (to me anyway) was how very uncomfortable sitting in such a gown can be.  I think this is a fabric which is made for standing and just looking decorative.  It's also kind of 'noisy' when you walk.  It's not so heavy when you're wearing it, but there's noticeable weight when you handle it, or put it on or take it off.  I would caution others with a similar plan to watch out.  I kept shoving sequins under a fingernail when I was trying it on, and I actually bled.  Very painful, too.

You can't see much of the train, but there isn't much of a train, really.  That's why it's a baby train.  The top photo especially has the skirt in a strange position at the hem.  It really does hang nicely though, and I think you can see it better in the back view.  It reads mostly as a column, which is my kind of thing anyway.  The 'train' is just a little extra fun, swishiness.

I wore this for a New Year's Eve party, and will wear it again Saturday for another.  I'm sure it will be a handy thing to be able to pull out of my wardrobe.  The color, a very dark navy which sometimes seems to aim toward purple and sometimes toward gunmetal, will be appropriate for any number of occasions, I think.

The Gown - Details on Vogue 1250

From 2011Gown

From 2011Gown

Finally, photos of the Gala Gown made from Vogue 1250,lengthened and with a train added. This is the gown I wore to the Lyric Opera opening night.


Carolyn was interested in how I did the train. I thought I would probably want to add a godet at CB, but didn't know if I should put it in the seam, or cut it onto the main skirt, which was what I had hoped would work, since with the ribbed knit fabric, the fewer seams the better. I looked in all my books, and found just about nothing on the subject.

I asked, and got good suggestions from my friend Jane, who gave me several patterns from her 'permanent collection' to look at, including the one I finally decided was just what I wanted, (OOP) Vogue 9400, which has a very similar skirt, with a cut-on godet train.

I laid it over my pattern, but only used it as a guide, since it had side seams, and my skirt was one piece from the CF fold to the CB seam, necessitating a narrower godet, even though my fabric was quite wide.

For general informational purposes, Jane says that a train will usually start where the top of a slit would be in a skirt, but I thought that since this was a knit, I could preserve the columnar effect of the skirt a little more by starting lower, and still have plenty of walking room, which proved to be the case. I started angling out at about the knee, and made an angle that brought me to the edge of the fabric at the length I wanted. Not very technical, but it worked perfectly.

From 2011Gown

She pinned the hem for me too, and used her standard 'bridesmaid length' which finishes 1 1/2" above the floor, giving plenty of room to walk, and looks floor-length to viewers. I worried a little about it being that far off the floor, but I have to admit, it worked perfectly, and I had no trouble walking, although one must 'manage' one's train when backing up, etc.

I did a hand stitched hem, using a supported catchstitch, and very fine silk thread. I started it with regular sewing thread, and it showed a lot. The fine thread made a great difference. You can see both the inside and outside of the hem in the photo below.

From 2011Gown

The shoes are slightly visible in some of the photos, but here's a better picture.

From MuPhiConvention

They are the ones I had to put 4 coats of ModPodge on to keep them from 'adhering' to the dress. I had no problems walking in them, quite a few blocks total in downtown Chicago, and wore them for about 6 hours total that night. As I'd thought, they were quite comfortable, although going down steps in them is not my favorite thing.

You can see all the photos in the slideshow above, but I'll leave you with a back view showing the train a little better, and a better view of the wrap I made to wear with the dress.

From 2011Gown