Macaron -- Early Production Notes

Kind of a sneak peek here. I've been working on the Macaron, and wanted to share a few notes. First, the contrast fabric. I had already purchased a fabulous stretchy wool from Gorgeous Fabrics for the body, but felt like the yoke selection could make or break this dress. After browsing online, I really wanted to feel some fabric, and ended up at Gail K's, a local fabric institution. Ordinarily, you are completely ignored as you browse there, but this time, Gail (although not THE Gail K) almost immediately approached me. I had a swatch of the gray wool, and after explaining the design, she immediately led me to this:

It's silk. And you may be noticing that huge white flaw down the middle. Well, apparently, this is silk to make ties out of, and the owner must have gotten it for a song, because it was only $4/yard! And on top of that, everything in the store is 20% off til the end of the year. And it was a perfect match. But.

I think you get what you pay for. Or, it's just silk. Anyway, it moved and grooved all over and in the end, I used a Pro-Sheer elegance fusible interfacing on the yoke pieces to stabilize it.

Second. Biggest design change is moving the zipper from the side to the back. So, I constructed the back, and have inserted the invisible zipper. [Basically, the pattern instructions call for constructing the back and front bodice, then sewing the shoulder seams. I just went ahead and attached the skirt as well.

All pieces cut out and sorted.

Third. The pattern calls for the yoke and bodice sewn together in an interesting, flat, from the right side fashion. Kind of top stitched on, if you will. I did it more conventionally, right sides together, staystitching each piece, and clipping curves where necessary.

Fourth. I'm lining the whole thing. With silk apparently, but I'll have to confirm that. For the yoke, I'm simply underlining, basting the silk to silk, and treating it as one piece. I'll use a French seam for the shoulders. I'll explain how I'm doing the rest of the lining in another post.

Fifth. (I didn't really mean for this to get so long) The midriff piece in the original design is the contrast fabric, but I've decided to use the wool, and made piping from the yoke silk to outline. OK, I think that's it. Have a look: