Red Velvet, Part 2

As I previously mentioned, my yardage for this project was extremely limited.

That old adage, measure twice, cut once was something I took to heart!

In fact, I laid out the pattern pieces multiple times, took pictures, went to bed, and tried again the next day.  But no matter what I did, those bias sleeve pieces were not going to fit – darn it!  I ended up shortening them by 2” to squeeze them in.

Once I was sure that it was possible to make the dress with this fabric, I drew out a very rough sketch of my chosen layout.  As I cut each piece, I crossed my fingers that I had not forgotten some important piece of the puzzle.

The instructions use an underlining instead of a lining.  I decided to follow them, just for fun.  I often have an issue with straight skirt linings showing when I sit down, and the underlining takes care of the problem.  And change is fun!  Also, this made it possible to mark my lining instead of the velvet which is so much easier!

For the back skirt pieces, I added an extra layer of silk organza (between the velvet and bemberg lining) as an experiment.  I am hoping that the crisp fabric will keep the skirt from bagging out.  I will let you know how that goes.

Because the upper skirt back is not cut on the grain, I added another strip of organza to stabilize the opening.

I did have to piece the second cut of the drape.  Thankfully, this does not show on the final dress!  Because the velvet has a whole lot of drape to it, I underlined the upper drape with two layers of tulle from the stash.  I probably should have used netting (the coarser stuff) but I did not want to make a special trip to the fabric store. 

 And that is the skirt!