Miss V asked if I would sew up a few garments for her as she is heading over to Asia for the next year and needed appropriate clothes.  She brought three pieces of fabric with her, and a dress to copy.

I’d sewn a hot LRD based on Vogue 9595 a couple of years ago for her, and she so liked the simple empire style that she requested a couple more from the fabric she brought with her.   This orange polyester satin looks nice, but shows every single stitch.  It’s lined with a poly-cotton broadcloth, which I’m sure won’t stick in the heat and humidity, but it’s heavier than the fashion fabric.

Then she asked if she could have a new version of a sheath dress with a mock sarong skirt that she’d had in her wardrobe for years.  I was hoping she would fall in love with something from my stash, and she chose a length of Megan by Liberty of London (who are now called Liberty Art fabrics) in a hot pink colour way.  I am very surprised at how pretty this dress turned out to be.  The one flaw in my copy is very obvious, but I could not correct it because I didn’t have enough fabric to re-cut the skirt overlays.

I completely underlined the garment with cotton voile and piped the neckline and arm openings.  But I didn’t want to line it because she’s going to be wanting very cool clothing for the next year.  So I used a catch-stitch for the edging.  All these dresses have the bra keepers in the shoulders.

And I knew she wanted a white dress.  This burnout re-embroidered cotton voile was originally purchased last summer for a dress that DD1 really didn’t like, so I thought I’d use it for this last piece.  DD1 thought it was a wonderful use of the fabric.  (Obviously, her tastes in clothing differ significantly from mine – no big inter-generational surprise).  I used the bodice from  Burda 2-2011-101, which has been made up a gazillion times around the sewing world.  I just so like the bodice despite the reports of fitting nightmares, and thought it would suit my friend.  I chose a circle skirt instead of the dirndl – it’s a more pleasing silhouette.

I took the darts out of the back and put a length of elastic at the waist. And I’d love to thank my DD1 for being willing to goof off and model all these garments.  If she wasn’t so gracious, you’d have seen pictures of these garments on hangers.