Jasika Nicole

Jasika Nicole Instagram – Another dreamy silk velvet from @promenadefabrics but with a twist! I held off sewing this textile for a very long time because silk velvet had proven itself to be my nemesis. On past projects I used every trick in the book (hand basting, spray adhesive, an abundance of pins, both parallel and perpendicular ) to keep the fabric from shifting and moving under my needle and misaligning the raw edges, but *nothing* worked. When dreaming about what to make with this chocolate stunner (and feeling anxiety about the process) remembered that soaking shifty silks in gelatin and hanging it dry turned the fabric into something close to paper, making it MUCH easier to sew, and I wondered if the method would work for fabric with pile. I scoured the internet (and by scoured I mean I googled once) to see if anyone had tried it and written about it but found nothing. Luckily I had a scrap of peach velvet leftover from my envelope dress, so I decided to fuck around and find out and soaked it in gelatin, then hung it to dry. And what do you know?? It worked a charm! I immediately drenched my whole two yards of chocolate silk velvet, and within a couple days I was able to sew this entire dress up as if it were cotton 🤯 The zipper (which I moved to the underarm instead of at center back because OUCH) is so exquisitely sewn in and invisible that I have to hunt for it whenever I put it on (zippers and silk velvet are typically 😖😖😖 for me)! I’m sure I’m not the first person to use this trick on silk velvet but maybe I’m the first person to tell you about it? Which is awesome! And the best part? Once it was sewn up I washed and dried it in the dryer with another load of laundry and it came out even softer and more supple than it was on the bolt. Unbelievable! Pattern is #plieadesdress – not my favorite but I’d made it before and knew it would be simple enough to let the juicy fabric take center stage but interesting enough to feel special. This make absolutely delights me every time I wear it and it’s as soft as it sounds 🤎 pics don’t quite do the fabric justice but in the last slide you can see what the fabric was like post-gelatined- stiff and crunchy! | Posted on 19/Apr/2024 10:06:39