Wine-colored Slinky Dress
I made this dress for my DD to wear to work during the day and to embellish with glitzy waistline treatments for dressier occasions.

I actually made the dress back in August, and she has worn it a great deal since then. However, over Thanksgiving she brought it home and asked me to make a silver lace cummerbund for her to accessorize with for the holiday season. The cummerbund treatment is described at the end of this post.

Dress photos:

Front View:

Closeup:

Pattern used:

Simplicity 3775, Views A and C combined. Modified View C for a detachable cummerbund.

This is a hugely popular pattern, judging from the 69 reviews of it to date on http://www.patternreview.com/. I liked the pattern a great deal, although I think the midriff ruching adds unwanted dimension in the waist area.

Materials:

• 1 ½ yards of 54 inch wide Acetate Lycra Slinky from Christine Jonson
• Universal Size 70 needle in Elna serger, Janome coverstitch, and Bernina sewing machines
• Coats and Clark Dual Duty 100% Polyester Thread (poly wrapped poly core) in all machines
• Clear elastic for seam stabilization
• For cummerbund treatment:
  Silver lace from stash
  Horsehair braid from stash
  Hooks and eyes

Machines Used:

• Bernina 1630 computerized sewing machine
• Elna 905 five thread serger
• Janome 1000 Coverstitch

Fabric Notes:
Fabric was prewashed in warm water with small amount of detergent and dried on Permanent Press setting. There was no shrinkage at all. Some fabric books report that Slinky shrinks, but I did not have that experience with this piece.

Since the Slinky had no appearance of nap, I cut with a “without nap” layout. Again, some fabric books report that Slinky has a nap. I checked closely, because I did not really have enough fabric for the design. In order to get the dress out of this reduced amount of fabric, I had to seam the back bodice, back midriff, and back skirt pieces, which were supposed to have been cut on the fold. This was a good idea because it allowed me fit the back more closely to the body.

Sewing with Slinky:

1. Do not meld the stitching after sewing the seams, even with a silk organza presscloth. The heat from the iron causes the Slinky to moiré—that is, it imprints a moiré pattern on the right sides when they are pressed together.
2. To smooth the seams, allow the steam iron to hover just above the fabric and finger press. Do not let the iron touch the Slinky.
3. Slinky lengthens as the garment hangs. To allow for this lengthening effect, I made these adjustments:
   
   a. I widened the shoulder seam allowances an additional 3/8 inch by sewing them with a 1 inch seam allowance. This prevented the bust point from moving appreciably lower. Since this is an empire bust, I felt that 3/8 inch was enough. If it had been a full length bodice piece, I would have adjusted the bust point up by ¾ inch.
   
   b. I sewed the midriff seams at 1 inch instead of 5/8 inch. That is, although I cut a 5/8 inch seam allowance, I actually sewed a 1 inch seam allowance, resulting in an additional 3/4 inch shortening in the overall length.
   
   c. I shortened the sleeves 2 inches because I thought the pattern’s sleeve length was too long to start with and because of the lengthening effect of the Slinky knit.
   
4. The coverhem machine was great for the hem. I made a narrow hem , 1 inch, which was just weighty enough to hold the drape of the dress but not deep enough to cause rippling. I just stitched it right up, no stabilizers or fancy tricks necessary. I really love that coverhem machine!

Things I did with this project (that weren't in the pattern instructions):

1. I didn't have enough material for this dress, so I cut a center back seam in the upper bodice, the midriff, and the skirt pieces. That allowed me to manipulate the placement to get the dress out of 1.5 yards of 54 inch fabric.
   
2. The neckline binding was applied using the directions in Sarah Veblen’s excellent video: http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3839/video-a-neckline-binding-for-knits except that I cut a 1 ¾ inch wide band instead of the 1 ½ inch wide band that she recommends. The actual length of the neckline band was about 1 ½ inch shorter than the pattern piece called for.
   
3. Sleeve assembly: I like to install the sleeves flat instead of in the round. However what I don’t like about that flat insertion method is that I don’t think the sleeve lies as smoothly in the underarm area when the seam runs continuously from sleeve hem through the armhole and down to skirt hem.
   
   To have the best of both worlds, I sew the sleeve into the armhole flat for all but 3 inches in the underarm area (1 ½ inch on each side of the side seam). Then I sew the undersleeve seam and the side seam separately.
   
   Finally I sew the underarm area of the armhole seam (the 3 inch area previously left unsewn) so that the effect is the same as if the sleeve had been sewn in the round.
   
   Here is the method stepwise:
   1) Seam the sleeve to the armhole flat, starting and stopping 1 ½ inch from the underarm edge.
   2) Sew the sleeve underarm seams
   3) Sew side seams continuously (as one long seam), instead of in three sections (bodice, midriff, and skirt) as directed by the pattern instructions
   4) Finish off the armhole seam in the underarm area.
   
4. Seam construction:
   For all seams except shoulder seams and armhole seams:
   1) 4 thread serger stitch
   2) Stitch length: 1.0
   3) Differential Feed: 2.0
   4) Seam allowances were cut at 5/8 inch and trimmed to 5/16th inch on the serger.
   
   Shoulder and armhole seams: narrow zig zag sewing machine stitch plus 3 thread serger stitch. These two seams were sewn this way because of the ease required for the sleeve/armhole seams and the elastic stabilizer inserted into the shoulder seams.
   1) Seams first sewn with a narrow zig zag stitch (stitch length 3.0, stitch width .25) on the sewing machine before serging the seam allowances together.
   2) 3 thread serger stitch
   (a) Stitch length 1.0
   (b) Differential Feed: 1.5
   (c) Seam allowances stitched at 5/8 inch and trimmed to 5/16th inch on the serger.
   
   Clear elastic stabilizer notes:
   1) Clear elastic used to stabilize shoulder seams. To do this I just caught the very edge of the elastic (scant 1/16th inch) in the shoulder seam using the narrowest zig zag stitch setting on my sewing machine. The bulk of the elastic’s width is applied to the seam allowance of the back shoulder seam allowance. Then I serged the seam allowances together using a 3 thread serger stitch with stitch length 1.0 and Differential Feed at 1.5.
   
5. I made a detachable silver lace cummerbund for the dress. View C of the pattern has a ruched midriff which is attached to the dress at the side seams. To maintain the dress's versatility, I wanted the midriff to be detachable.
   

Drafting the cummerbund was simple, as I did it right on the dress while on the dressform. It has shaping that allows for the lower bodice, waist, and upper hip dimensions. It closes at the center back.


To keep the cummerbund from slipping or bunching up, I supported it at each side with wide horsehair braid zig zag stitched directly to the pleated lace. You can see these horsehair braid supports through the lace when the cummerbund is on my cutting table, but when it is on the dress, the supports blend right in.

Here is a view of the inside aspect of the cummerbund, showing the horsehair braid and the hooks at one center back edge.

Things I learned (or was reminded of) in this project:

What I like the best about this dress when I finished it is its simplicity of line, which allows for a variety of waistline treatments. Here are some belts that my DD wears with her dress:

For a little nighttime glitz, a retro gold belt with chunky "jewels":Back view with gold belt:

For daytime wear, a slim silver belt:

Or a tone-on-tone look:

Things I would do differently were I to repeat this project:

1. I would be more fearless in sewing with Slinky knit. It was actually very easy to sew, and it sure can take the wear that my DD subjects it to. Not all dresses can be tossed in a heap in the corner of the bedroom and then shaken out in a few days to be worn again, I shudder to mention. Plus she has washed it to death and it looks great. She doesn't put it in the dryer, however, since the dryer in her condo has only one heat setting: Sizzlin'. When I prewashed the fabric, I tumbled it on the permanent press setting on the dryer, and it came out just fine.
   
2. I would investigate the claim once again that Slinky fabric has a nap. That was not the case for this piece, nor could I see a nap in some of the Chico's slinky that I own. But even so, I will continue to check for a color difference with the nap in future projects, just to be safe.
   
3. Some Slinky fabrics can be thin and show every lump/bump. The way to avoid this is either to make body-skimming designs or to self line the bodice area. Since I barely had enough fabric to make this dress, my DD wears a knit underslip with it. If I had had tons of fabric, I might have chosen to self line it, although with the slip, the dress lies smoothly over the body.