[Jennifer1568]

I am making my daughter a Christmas dress. I am using dupioni silk for the skirt, trim and collar and velvet for the bodice and sleeves (unless we decide to make a sleeveless version). I have no experience with dupioni silk- any tips that I should know- like should I stabilize the seams with interfacing or avoid pins?

[cybele727]

I did fairy tale in dupioni.

It FRAYS… so buy some spray on fray stuff. Finish the seams with a zigzag.

PIn if possible in the seam allowance.

Handle each piece as little as possible. Don’t keep picking up and moving around. When you work on a piece, like the skirt…. do as much as you can before setting it down to work on it again.

Jenny! 🙂

[Nicole]

I bumped a few topics that may be helpful Jennifer.

~Nicole~

[Jennifer1568]

Nicole, did you write about putting interfacing on seams to make them sew smoother with some slippery fabrics? I kind of remember that vaguely. Thanks for bumping up the discussions about dupioni. I read it all again. And also, thanks cybele 727, for the advice. I think I’ll finish the pieces with a zigzag before I sew them. I have already washed the fabric and ironed it. Water did not make spots. The silk is beautiful- sort of a rough weave. I hope it goes well and I want to sew silk again.

[Nicole]

Jennifer,I use that trick quite often on shoulder seams.

Just a thin strip of a soft fusible interfacing.

Love love love sewing with silk.

[Masha Richart]

This is very timely for me too – I finally am working on my 3-year-old’s Christmas Playdate dress and am using dupioni for the yoke and, I thought, for the hem facing. I am having such a hard time with the facing though; don’t know what I will do. I wish I had some fray check or that it was available here! And this dress has to be finished tonight because we have our first Christmas party tomorrow. The dress has been in progress for three weeks and I have made SO many mistakes.

[Nicole]

What are you struggling with? The fraying? Or making the yoke?

I blogged the yoke if that will help,if it is the fraying,zigzag the seams after sewing and be careful not to tug them.

A wee bit of interfacing along the stitching line would be very helpful for stability.

[Masha Richart]

Nicole, the problem is more in the cutting of the facing (as I said in the what-are-you-sewing-now post), but the more I fiddle the more it frays and that is also frustrating. The interfacing is a good idea – maybe I will try that today when I get up the guff to cut the facing out again.

[Nicole]

Poor chicken,I wish I could help more.

xx

[Jennifer1568]

I really appreciate your help, Nicole.

[Nicole]

Thank you Jennifer,you are sweet.

[Kim]

Next time I will pre serge the dupioni silk waist seam because that is where I had the most fraying trying to gather. All other raw seams were fine. I washed mine according to a previous thread in a pillow case on gentle cycle in a top loading machine. I air dried draped over a crib for one hour then ironed while damp (I think that was Nicole’s suggestion). It dries very fast.