Baby Silk Embroidery - Simplicity 2392

One of the classes I am taking this semester is Silk Embroidery.  I've dabbled in regular hand embroidery a few times and absolutely love it, so when the opportunity came up to take this class in place of another one that was cancelled I was excited.  For those of you who may not know what silk embroidery is here is how it is different form regular embroidery:

while regular embroidery typically uses cotton thread,

silk embroidery is done with 100% silk ribbon.

You even do the same stitches as you would in regular embroidery, but of course the size of the ribbon is what makes the stitches have a different look.  Silk ribbon embroidery is used a lot for doing floral motifs on things since the thickness of the ribbon gives good texture.

Now that you know a little about silk ribbon embroidery, back to the project!  The first project we were assigned for the silk embroidery class was a child garment.  No particular style or requirement for the garment, except that we did the embroidery on it and add lace somehow.  As soon as I saw this vintage pattern reprint from Simplicity I knew I had to use it for this project.  The feel of the embroidery just fits so well with the dress style.

I chose to sew up view B (the pink and white) but did the sleeve from view C.  

The embroidery I did on the front yoke of the dress is similar in layout and style to the embroidery idea they include in the pattern instructions.  I did a twisted/stem stitch for the flower stems, la daisy stitch for the flower petals, knots of r the flower centers, and ribbon stitch for the leaves.  I was still figuring out the twisted/stem stitch so the stems on these flowers look a little wonky.

 The part of the embroidery I did change was the embroidery on the bottom band.  Instead of the small flowers they did I wanted to make it look like the flowers were growing out of the hem of the dress.  I did all the same stitches as on the yoke, just bigger :)  and the twisted/stem stitch looks A QUADRILLION TIMES BETTER!  Ok, slight exaggeration there...but they do look so much better.  I was finally getting the hang of it.

And here are just a couple more pictures of the rest of the dress.  The armholes are faced, and the pattern even includes a piece to make the bias tape for them!  For the back yoke I chose two button that have a rainbow effect iridescence to them.

I am so pleased with how this dress turned out!  It is so adorable!  I even considered at one point selling it, but it's too cute to give away and plus I can save it for my future little girl...3, 4, 6 years down the road! lol