Remember that Vionnet Dress I started in October? My expectation was never that the dress would be completed at the end of a week. It was not. The entire week was spent sewing narrow hems, what felt like miles and miles of narrow edges. It was not difficult sewing but it was meticulous sewing, the kind of work that takes much patience and attention to detail.
When I returned home all that remained was to sew the dress together, four straight seams, and the shoulders. But this is a summer dress and fall was ramping up, so I didn’t really start sewing again until after the turn of the New Year.
Because the seam lines are all on the bias, I opted to sew them by hand. I used a fell stitch, joining the pieces with the wrong sides together. Actually, I went back and forth about this. Emily had noted that she had seamed her dress placing wrong sides together, but there was evidence that Vionnet had done the opposite, and I pondered this for a bit. Wrong sides together and the underside of the hem would be outward-facing on the floating triangles but the neckline hems would be turned down against the skin. Right sides together and the hem finish would be hidden on the floating panels but visible at the neckline. Or so I thought. This proved to be incorrect, but more about that later. I lost a day tootling about the inter-webs, looking at Vionnet dresses. and finally opting for wrong sides together.
Note to self: If I make this dress again, and I intend to make a silk version, I will assemble it differently, with the right sides together.
For my first fitting I simply basted the shoulders together, and adjusted slightly so that the neckline was low, but supposedly manageable. I knew there was to be a twist at the shoulders, but I thought, once again incorrectly, that this would require only minor adjustments to the fit.
The illustrations in the Japanese Vionnet Book (this is pattern #3) show the shoulder twist quite well, but even so it took me a while to figure out what would work with my fabric and my body. But even so, given my dyslexic difficulty with right/left/and mirror images, I had trouble translating what I saw in the book to the actual fabric in my hand. But I got it eventually.
I basted the shoulders together and tried on the dress. This proved to be a learning experience.
The. deep neckline, which I had originally felt was manageable, was now unwearable, although I might well have worn it in my 20s. The twist pulled the upper part of the neckline outward, creating a much more visibly plunging neckline. There were multiple factors at play here, not the least of which was due the fact that I was working with cotton voile and not a delicate silk. There is a big difference between a plunging but very narrow neckline, and a wide open plunge.
Now the problem became how to fix it. Simply pinning the neckline together at the center, which would require either a fold and a tack, or moving the center seam didn’t work. The resulting drape of the dress looked matronly, not at all the look I had been aiming for.
I went back to Emily Magli’s photos of the dress, shown in this blog post (as well as on Emily’s blog). I noted that Emily seemed to have positioned the twist more toward the back of the dress, which allowed the front neckline to lie flat. But a back twist looked terrible on me. Another round of research ensued, and I found multiple versions of the dress, with the twist placed in different ways, all of which altered the way the dress hung on the body although the construction varied only slightly.
I had permission to play, but I struggled to come up with something that worked for me.
Eventually I grew frustrated and tied knots at the shoulders, mostly just to see if I could create a neckline I liked. Surprisingly I really liked the knots. I liked the way the neckline lay flat, and felt it was also flattering. I thought that although the knots were more casual, they suited the cotton voile. This was always a “summer garden party” type of cocktail dress in my mind and the knots fit that slightly more casual vibe. Also the twisted seam looked bulky compared to the wispiness of the dress, whereas the knots made the bulk look intentional. I was sold. So I simply sewed the knots in place.
Voila! I finally had the dress I imagined.
I love this dress. I am also thrilled that I finished it in January, giving me a good start to the year. I’ve finished two projects this month, and I adore both of them, even though only the sweater is seasonal and getting much wear now. Eventually the weather warm. Eventually, I will have photos of me wearing the dress, but not today.
I am still thinking about making another version in silk. Unusual as it is, I think there is room for more. This is not a dress to be worn everyday, but a dress for occasions. It is lovely and very forgiving.
That second Vionnet-inspired dress will not appear immediately. There are many other things I wish to make. But I am eager to sew, both generally, and specifically with silk. Yes, it is true, I dream of miles and miles of tiny seams.