Butterick 3195 - Finished

I really wanted a dress in this style - a straight, comfortable dress with an interesting neckline, sleeveless in a pretty print.  I think I achieved what I was trying to do:

Some stats:

Pattern:
Out of Print Vogue 3195 bias dress with cowl neckline that I cut on the straight grain

Fabric:
Ltwt. silk crepe from Sawyer Brook (that is currently on sale for $12.99 per yd)

Notions:
9" black invisible zipper
scraps of ltwt fusible interfacing from Farmhouse Fabrics

Construction:
The construction was pretty straightforward for the dress.  Sew the invisible zipper in the back...here the pattern suggests a 20" zipper but I didn't like the way it fell in the wadder so I used a shorter one for this version.  I also used very ltwt. fusible strips from an interfacing that I got from Farmhouse Fabrics (called baby interfacing) to stabilize the area where the zipper was inserted.

Then instead of using the back facing pieces that came with the pattern, I used self made bias binding to finish off the back neckline. To sew the back to the front at the shoulder seams, I stole the instructions from Vogue 1250 and sewed the shoulder seams that way, making sure to catch the edges of the cowl facing. 

Sewed up the side seams and used more of the bias binding to finish off the armhole edges.  I did have to stop and make a little more binding at this point...but it was worth it.

The dress is unlined.  It's light and airy and I will wear it with a half slip making it a perfect summer dress.  This is how I will wear it to work this week:

So there were a couple of questions from the last post about this dress:

ASewnWardrobe asked:
"If I did ALL of that last Sunday evening?"
*LOL*  No, all of the prep work and the wadder was sewn weeks ago.  I just got around to cutting out and sewing the base of the dress last Sunday evening.  I'm NOT that fast!

Renee asked:
"Why was the bias cut so bad?"
It was the cling factor that made the dress unworthy of leaving the house. There was enough fabric in the dress, it's just the way the dress hung on my body...not pretty...not pretty at all!

As for the drapiness of the neckline, I'm sure if the piece had been cut on the bias it would have had more drape.  However, I'm happy with the way the neckline falls now.  It's an interesting look that I don't presently have in a dress made from a woven fabric.

Finally Elmo asked:
"Is there any Issey Miyake patterns in the new Vogue Patterns Magazine?"
No...there aren't any.

So I've finished another project...will share that one with you tomorrow, but I'm headed back to my sewing machine.  I saw this dress on a PYT at Chipolte last week that I MUST copy!

...as always, more later!