Look 3 development

Look 3 is representative of the Magdalena river. Complete with a the river’s sweeping silhouette across the front, this maxi dress is rouched across 3/4s of the dress, leaving a sliver of an underdress.

The initial development was a drape. I took 250 yards of 45'“ wide polyester lining and gathered the length under my machine in 3” increments. I cut the shape of the river out as was taped on my form, basted the edge of the rouching as to keep their shapes, and cut the negative from the same lining fabric. After stitching the two halves together the result was the correct texture, but completely off balanced and prone to leaning with 3/4s of the fabric being heavier than the 1/4 pure lining.

Seam ripping the first dress apart, I interfaced the 1/4 pure lining to offset the other 3/4 of the dress. The result was visibly disappointing.

Scrapping the first version, I created a slip dress to be the base, created a new swath of gathered yardage, and using my template of the Magdalena’s contours, I topstitched the ruched fabric onto the slip. The ruched yardage’s raw edges have been staystitched with twill tape, which effectively maintains the contours of the CF’s edge. Edits to this look include: adding interfacing to the slip dress front and hand stitching the dress’ irregular edge to the slip dress, effectively reducing it’s risk of pulling.