Obviously there must be at least one entirely frivolous thing made at least once a year, right? This is it.
I’ve embarked on making the VikiSews Ornella Dress out of this ‘Silky’ Prints Stretch Charmeuse from Joann Fabrics. Spoiler: there is no silk content in this fabric.
The dress is still in progress so I have no photos ready yet, but I wanted to share a construction hack that I have implemented. The pattern calls for a molded foam bra cup to support the bust cups on the dress. I happen to have had a set of foam cups in my size (yay for the stash!) but it was not ideally shaped across the top/neckline for the bust cups on this dress. It didn’t fill out those upper cup flappy thingies on the pattern and was really going to look shoddy.
Instead, I pulled out some spacer foam aka bra cup “cut and sew” foam from my stash. I took the seam allowances off of the bra cup lining pieces from the pattern and used the resulting pieces to cut out bra foam versions of the exact cup shapes. I sewed these together (butted the sides together and zig-zagged across each seamline) and VOILA they fit into the bust cups perfectly, offering just the right amount of stability to hold the cup shape.
So far that’s the only real deviation from the pattern instructions on this project. It is extremely laborious to do everything precisely and perfectly. I am a bit chagrined that I chose a black lining for this instead of a more matching shade, because it shows up just a little bit at the front neckline. I think I’d have been better off choosing a nude lining, but it’s far too late now. I have completed the bodice construction and it’s time to sew the skirt pieces together.
