Yet more Butterick B4320

The starting point for this costume was a moment of weakness in Dress Sew in Vancouver.  I was drawn to this beautiful brocade because of the colours but also because of it's lovely weight and drape.  In my head, I justified the $10/metre cost with the thought that the girls' dress up dresses get more wear than their regular clothes do.  I gulped at the thought of spending $30 on a Halloween costume but bought 3 metres because it's only 36 inch wide.

Again, I made View C, this time with the matching sleeves (on a side note: isn't it amazing how totally different it looks with different fabric?)

I don't care how pretty it is, never again will I sew with brocade!  You just have to look at it and it ravels.  I used a Hong Kong seam  finish for seams that have to lie flat and bound (binded?) the other seams in bias tape.  I started off with high hopes for how pretty this was going to be but got lazy and messy after only a few seams. 

It's not that I begrudge the time this type of finish takes (although that is part of it), it's that I started having this sinking feeling that even after all this work, this dress is not going to make it much past Halloween.  I hope I'll be proven wrong but the topstitching is already looking iffy and it hasn't even been worn yet. 

I will definitely try a Hong Kong finish again, though.  I think with the right colour binding, matching thread and a bit of patience (all conspicuously absent in this project!) it could look fantastic.