Simplicity 2648 Flower Sheath

As if I could never have enough sheath dresses... 

Fabric Love Story...

The Fabric I chose for my third S2648 is matelasse from Elliott Berman Textiles. It was love at first sight, however, the price was not so pretty:$55/yard. I decided to wait and keep my fingers crossed, and hoped this beauty would not sold out until their anniversary sale.

On the night before the sale, I was so relieved to see that the lovely matelasse was still available.

The order confirmation e-mail was still in my old e-mail account:

Thank you for your order. Your order number is ****, placed 04/10/2012 at 01:44AM.

1:44AM? I did not hit the order button as soon as the date changed in the East Coast. That was a mistake. I received this message from the seller the following day:

Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:28:14 -0400

Subject: re: Prada item

Dear Yuki: 

Thank you for placing an order with us. It is ready to ship, however, item MB-17473 Designer Matelasse. Prada. France is available in 1-3/8 only. If it can still work for you, I will charge you for 1-1/4 yards. So far the item is marked as SOLD OUT in your favor.

Oh...
While I was busy loading more fabric to my shopping cart and making tormenting decision to delete many of them, other smart shoppers around the world bought this fabric.

Of course I immediately let them know that I still wanted it, but with only 1-3/8 yard, my original plan of making A-line dress with my TNT, M5466 + V8555 had to be changed. 

Regardless, I was so happy that I could grab the last piece of the bolt because the real thing was so much more beautiful with a gentle drape and a soft hand. 

Both sides are equally beautiful, romantic, and oh so dreamy...

... and if you trim away white layer around flower motifs, the fabric will look like this:

I could combine these four "sides" any way I wanted: I could use the side of white background for bodice and melange for skirt, or sheer for center front and others for the rest, etc.

Honey, We Need to (Geek) Talk...

By the way, it is easy to know how many combinations you get to play around. Just type this formula in Excel:

= number of "sides" ^ number of pattern pieces

For example, I have four sides to play with and S2648 has ten pieces:

4 ^ 10 = 1,048,576

Oh wow, I get to play around more than a million combinations!? That is amazing!*

Now, Back to Sewing...

For lining, I could not think of any other but red silk. This is the same china silk that once rescued my daughter's concert dress. (You can read the story here: Adding Length to a Ruffle Dress )

After the lining was attached, this dress had been on the dress form for about three months. Everyday I saw it and grew to like how the red lining peeked out of the neckline. When I finally made time to finish this dress, the first thing I did was manipulate the lining to make it look like piping. All I did was trim the seam allowance so that it would function as cording, wrap the lining over it, and hand-sew it into place. 

I will probably wear this dress to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's concert which gives me another chance this year to listen to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. The theme of the concert? The Power of Romance - Isn't this fabric perfect for that?  

*Long story short, I settled with only using the melange background side. Life is too short, seriously.