Dahlias are a fav and I found a stunning variety to design my own fabric through Contrado UK for this Summer ‘little black’ dress. It’s still 30C here in Sydney so it’s still quite hot.

This print has great colours true to the image I used.

This is my third designer fabric print effort and I’ve really loved creating the fabric design, colour and balance for clothing.

This Simplicity 1357 dress is fairly straightforward to make and is perfect for hot, humid Summer days.

Simply hanging

The fabric I’ve chosen this time is a much firmer fabric so again I pondered on the dress style would work for me once the fabric arrived on my doorstep.

You can order Contrado fabric samples as there are 98 to choose from and I relied only on the detailed product descriptions on their website. This fabric is exactly what I wanted to work with.

This Lucent fabric is a “lightweight, shimmering double faced sateen fabric. Made of a satin weave, constructed of woven poly-based straight set filament fibres. This shiny, substantially opaque material is a high lustre fabric which is very light and airy, weighing only 120 gsm.”

The print panels are 50cm lengths and 139cm width. I placed the 3 dahlias across the panel and I used this print ‘side on’. 

Work in progress make with plain rayon fabric added to the side seams

I really love this huge print and then used a plain black rayon fabric on the back that has a similar shine to it. 

This rayon has enough shimmer to match the printed Lucent fabric

I’m saving the other two panels for another dress/coat that has a defined waistline but I have to think about where to place this print. I’m thinking of and asymmetrically placed dahlia. I may need to reflect on this idea for a while.

Happy dancing in the finished dress

Back to the print. Using the plain black fabric for the back allowed me to add enough of it on the front panel as the front hem width is about 10cm wider than the panel. It’s worked out quite nicely. There’s a balance to this dress with the print is very rewarding for a home sewer like me. 

The hem stops just under the dahlia and I can safely wear heels or flat shoes with this dress and it’s still balanced.

Ready to head out for the weekend

So this is the last of my three fabrics I created through Contrado and I hope this has encouraged you to try designing your own fabrics too.