Custom Katastrophic Silk Chiffon Gown

I just finished an unusual project for myself- designing and sewing a formal gown for a client!  It's such a change from my normal design work of knitwear for every day, but it's interesting and exciting to get to use really rich and beautiful materials, like the silk chiffon and silk velvet I used in this project!  

Here are my sketches for the idea of the dress which I created after meeting with my client and looking at some pictures together of what she liked.  I first wanted to make sure I was a good fit for her as a designer.  Luckily I really liked her inspiration pics and it was easy for us to come up with something we both could get excited about.  You can see some variations, some of which I'd like to start as a jumping off point for other custom dresses:

I really love drawing and it's one of my strong points, so naturally in my design process I rely a lot on my drawings, which is where I make most of the design decisions.  This time since I haven't ever worked with this kind of fabric before I wasn't sure how the design would translate to the finish piece, so it was a bit of an experiment.

This is what the final dress looks like!  Though the scalloped hemline is not identical to what I had drawn, but the effect is still what I wanted.  I was lucky to be able to get my fabrics in almost the exact colors I was imagining, as you can see in my sketches, thanks to Fabricker, one of Austin's great locally owned fabric stores!

Not a perfect fit on my dress form, but tailored specifically to my client.  You still get the idea.

Exquisite silk velvet from Silk Fabric on Etsy

Three layers of chiffon lined only to the knee so the dress ends in a semi-sheer ombre effect.  The bottom two layers are iridescent silk!  A total dream.