V8648 - The Finished Couture Dress

At last the couture dress is finished, well I should say it was pretty much finished when I last posted during MMMay 2017 as it was worn to Government House on the 5th of May for an Investiture Ceremony as my husband was part of a group reciving a Group Bravery Citation for a resuce they assisted with in Japan in 2007. 

I realised that my in my haste to finalise the dress to wear to Government House, the zip was not as nice as I would have liked it and when your husband says he can see the zip you know it must be obvious.

So unpicking of the pick stitching of the zip happened as well as the lining being undone so it felt like it was going a long way back to get the zip back in,

and the lining, which is sewn in sections e.g. skirt, bodice and midriff.

The final step was to do a rolled hem for the silk lining,

adding some lace to finish it off.

With the wide neckline I also decided to add some thread bars to attach the dress to my bra to stop any chance of it slipping off my shoulders.

I found it interesting that once the dress was finished I wasn't keen to wear it, it didn't feel right.  So I took it along to one of my ASG Groups and asked my sewing friends what was wrong, the length, the sleeves or what?  The unamious decision was that the sleeves were too long so they were shortened by 2.5" (nearly 6cm).

Since then the dress has been worn a number of times and I love the new coral/red accessories I now have to wear with it.

So here are some more photos of the dress after being worn all day at the office.

Unfortunately the jacket hasn't progessed much further as my sewing time at present is on curtains for the house now that we have a new colour scheme and is also why there is a lot more knitting appearing.

Coral Orange tube necklace

I just couldn't help myself, I needed a new necklace for another semi formal dinner I was attending.

The same day that I made the Coral Red necklace set, I also made the above Coral Orange 5 strand necklace and earrings.

Julie was very helpful again in working out the colours for me and this class was a stringing workshop held by Bead Them Up.

For this necklace we chose:

• 9mm Coral Orange tubes
• 1.8mm black Spineless faceted round
• Jewellery wire 19 strand 0.35mm

It was then a matter of choosing the length and making 5 separate strands, 

and then they are captured in a cone that is attached to the clasp.

and of course there had to be earrings.

Here we are at the formal dinner.

I am also thrilled thgat this necklace goes so well with this top.