The Acorn Dress

Pattern, Marfy 3957

Fabric, Lace, Sophie Hallette

Lining, 4-ply silk crepe, Mood Fabrics

Trim, Mokuba Ribbon

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

Our family has had a long running joke about our own personal food cycle that plays out daily at our house.  It goes like this–Sookie, our Catahoula Leopard Hound and resident squirrel patrol, chases the squirrels.  The squirrels throw acorns at her.  Ringo, our Basset Hound, rounds up all those acorns in his big mouth and collects them in a pile in our dining room, where he can chew them up whenever he feels like it.  When Ringo’s supply gets low (or non-existent because I’ve cleaned it up), he has a way of encouraging Sookie to get to work pissing off the squirrels so he can replenish his stash.  Ringo must have been thrilled when he hit the motherlode of all acorns.  It truly was huge! I guess he was so excited that he forgot he had to chew and swallowed the darn thing whole.

Why am I telling the story of Ringo and The Acorn (capitalization intentional)?  Because this little drama with The Acorn unfolded when I was at my couture workshop with Susan Khalje.  My week with Susan is always one of the highlights of my year, so it was particularly painful to have to cut it short and rush home.  But Ringo is my baby and there was no question where I should be.  So, how do I know that Ringo swallowed this enormous acorn without so much as a single chomp?  Well, I know because the vet gave us The Acorn after surgically removing it AND 40% of his damaged intestines AND his spleen.  Ringo spent a week in the critical care unit on a feeding tube where things looked very grim.  But as you can see from the photographs, I’m happy to report he’s made a full recovery.  I’ve put a stop to our food cycle and acorns are now enemy #1.

And the dress you see above, yes, you guessed it, is the one I was working on during my sewing workshop.  This dress will be forever linked with the drama of The Acorn.  Nothing to do but go ahead and call this The Acorn Dress.  And our story has the best possible ending.  A healthy dog and a finished dress!  And I am so grateful!!

Okay, let’s talk about the dress…Previously I had used lace trim on a few garments but this was my first attempt to make something out of lace fabric.  Nothing like cutting into some very fine lace from Paris on your first time out!  The lace comes from Sophie Hallette and I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends Nel and Leisa for very graciously making the appointment and guiding me to the very hard to find showroom.  It was so difficult to decide what to buy because I wanted everything!  But finally I opted for something in an unusual pattern and a color that you don’t typically see in lace.

It was a no brainer to tackle the construction of this dress under the guidance of Susan.  No way would I have taken scissors to this lace without her watching over my shoulder.  Everything was planned meticulously–studying the lace, laying out the dress pattern, carefully matching the lace design at all (or most) of the seams.  But my favorite part of making this was far and away working on the lace flounce.  I needed to preserve the beautiful scallops at the edge of the lace, but the flounce pattern piece is not a straight edge but a curve.  Susan showed me how to cut into the lace almost to the bottom, then overlap the cut section giving a gentle curve to the bottom edge.  The overlap is stitched together and the excess is cut away to create an invisible seam.  It’s magical!!

Other details include a narrow machine hem on the silk crepe, a hand picked couture zipper, and Mokuba ribbon stitched around the waist, the armholes, and the neckline.

No doubt about it, I’m now addicted to lace and can’t wait to start another lace project soon.  The last time I was in New York, Leisa and I (and Santiago too, bless him!) went shopping in the garment district and we both bought the same gorgeous lace to interpret in our own way.  Stay tuned to see what we come up with.

See you soon.