Textile Sanity: Gala Outfit

I haven't sewn a garment for myself in a long time. My son's annual fundraising gala for his Mandarin Immersion Program was coming up. I thought it was a perfect event to make something special. The theme was Oscar's Red Carpet.

I have a pair of shiny silver sequin skinny pants a friend gave me as a gag gift a couple of Christmas's ago. I kept them because they were funny to me and really...who doesn't need a pair of shiny pants?!?

Well, I thought the shiny pants would be a perfect base for me to build a dress-up outfit around for the gala. I poked around for Chinese vests on Amazon and Etsy and didn't see anything I really liked. I had this idea to make a structured vest with a peplum.

I found this awesome embossed and quilted black faux leather fabric at Joann's (of all places). The burgundy and black iridescent taffeta I had in my stash.

I pulled out a bodice sloper from a few years ago. When I say "a few years ago"... I mean, like, at least 20 years ago! After that length of time plus having a baby, I should have known that I would need to draft a new one. While my measurements had not changed that much, my proportions are TOTALLY different. The sloper did not fit in any way. The picture below shows what I cut hoping it would fit. What a laugh. It was too tight and too short. I ended up using a basic commercial vest pattern to start my canvas mock up.

Then I pulled out my book, Pattern Making for Fashion Design, for the peplum circle. It has this wonderful measurement chart for full, half, and quarter circle skirts. It's so easy to use.

This is the mock up front view after the first fitting. A friend of mine is making herself a Victorian ball gown and we traded fitting time. I love asymmetrical hems.

Back view of vest. Lots of pins.

The chalk line below is one side of my new waistline for the peplum.

This is the full peplum skirt pattern. The angle of the image makes the two sides look the same size. However, the far side is twice as long as the foreground side. My bed served as cutting table. The paper pattern just barely fit on the cutting board. I had to add a big pleat at center back to keep the fullness of the skirt while allowing the center front points to hang vertical. Function becomes design.

My intention was to make the inside look as nice as the outside. I had to get creative in how I sewed the pieces together. With piping and lining and fabric that did not want to be turned inside out I had to sew half seams, partial linings and pieced piping to put it all together.

I ended up having to hand stitch the bodice lining to the vest top. The lining was also a wee bit tighter than planned. I fixed that by taking out the tiny back darts to let the lining be more fluid. The inside is not as pretty as intended but it is fully lined.

My mother made these awesome Chinese knot buttons.

The zipper was a special piece I had purchased years ago. Separating zipper with rainbow metal teeth. It needed a special garment to be placed in and this vest was it.