In Betty Kirke’s book, Madeleine Vionnet (Kirke), pattern # 3 is a simple dress designed by Vionnet in 1919/1920. It is made of four square-like pieces that are sewn together along true bias with the seam allowances exposed on the outside of the dress. The shoulders seams are then sewn together with a single twist at the back shoulder.

Kirke p. 22

This dress is fairly easy to construct, but there are some couture techniques you will want to employ. I made a few mistakes along the way, but failure is knowledge. I will share some simple guidelines to help you, if you decide to make this dress for yourself.

Inspiration: I have a vase from the Kubista Gallery in the Czech Republic, and I liked the idea of drawing more attention to the geometric design by using contrasting fabric for the four squares. I wanted an even more dramatic Art Deco/Cubist feel to the dress.

As Kirke noted, Vionnet also found inspiration for her designs from objects, especially Ancient Greek vases.

Fabric: I used black and ivory silk crepe de chine (45″ wide) about 2.25 yards of each color. Vionnet used a solid ivory crepe de chine in the dress pictured above.

Pattern: I used the pattern from the Vionnet pattern book published in 2002 by Bunka Fashion College (Bunka) and had it enlarged to full scale by a specialty printing company (Nashville Prographics). The pattern is not a perfect square and has slight shaping at the corners for the neckline, armholes and hemline. However, you could get creative and save time by finding four ready-made scarves and employing similar construction techniques.

Preparation: I did not make a muslin, but it is always a good idea when you want to test the fit, proportion, and sewing techniques, so I do advise it. I pre-washed my fabric (separately) in the bathtub with small drop of Ivory Snow. I rinsed it and rolled the fabric in a towel to remove excess water. I then hung to dry and ironed it when it was completely dry.

Cutting: I prefer a rotary cutter instead of scissors when working with lightweight slippery silks. I made sure the grainline on my pattern was perfectly parallel to the selvedge (using a tape measure) before cutting. I used weights to keep the pattern in place.

Marking: I used a tracing wheel without tracing paper to mark the seamline of the pattern pieces. The fabric is thin so the wheel leaves enough of an impression on the fabric. I then thread traced the seamlines using different color threads to make sure center back (CB) , center front (CF), and sides would get matched correctly. There are slight differences in the two shapes at the shoulder and is easy to confuse the underarm with neckline. Do not skip thread tracing!

Hem: It is easier if you finish all 4 sides (not shoulder) first. I suggest a narrow hem finish, rolled hem, or picot edge hem by hand or machine. Vionnet did a hand rolled hem. I chose to do a machine narrow hem finish. See steps at the end of this post.

Baste: When all the edges are finished, Match wrong sides to wrong sides and hand baste the pieces together. CF, CB and sides. Bunka has you construct CF, CB, shoulders then side seams, which is fine too. I did shoulder seams last. I did a slip baste stitch and did not knot the ends. I also stopped and overlapped the basting every 10 inches or so. Because the seam is so far from the edge and the fabric is shifty, the slip-stitch was the easiest way to match the seamlines.

Twist: Add a single twist at the back shoulder before attaching it to the front shoulder. This helps with a better fit at the neckline and armhole. After the fitting, when I sewed the shoulder seam permanently, I turned the seam allowances in to enclose the raw edges to create a false French seam. I sewed this by hand with a fell stitch.

Fit: I found the CF extremely low-cut to my liking. I ended up taking the CF in by an inch. It is supposed to be loose fitting, so I would not over fit this dress. You will likely need to wear a slip with this dress, so I would try that on with it. You really can do whatever you want at the shoulders. You may want more twisting or gathering, whatever you find most flattering on you. I did the single twist at the back and found that it sort of gathered on its own at the shoulder to create a nice fit.

Final Construction: Kirke gives simple instructions on constructing the pieces, and I recommend following those (p. 54). I matched wrong sides together and sewed on the right side, because I wanted the necklines to be on the rightside. you could match right sides together and sew on the wrong side. Based on the tiny close-up of the picture in Kirke’s book (p. 54), Vionnet may have done it with right sides together. Vionnet sewed her seams permanently by hand. I highly recommend this. Since I chose to do contrasting fabrics, I decided to machine sew so I could have one color thread in the bobbin and one in the needle. The problem with machine sewing is that there is a lot of fabric in the seam allowance and it makes it really hard to sew a straight seam without the fabric shifting underneath, especially if it is slippery silk. Not to mention, you are sewing on the bias, so you run the risk of distorting and stretching the fabric with machine sewing. A hand-sewn seam would actually be neater and easier. I had to use my seam ripper quite a few times. If I had to do it over again, I would have a done a fell stitch instead of machine sewing.

Styling: Overall, I like this dress. It has an elegant, modern ease to it. You can wear it with boots or flats, belted or unbelted. I had a skinny leather tie belt on hand, but you could also make a tie belt as well. Vionnet did several variations of this dress (Kirke p. 22 and 118) and some were styled with brooches at the shoulder (p. 54). You could also make it shorter and wear over pants. Like I said, it’s modern and easy!

Narrow machine hem:

Step 1: Sew a staystitch (shown in black thread) 1/4 inch from the raw edge of the garment. Do not backstitch at any time.

Step 2: Fold the seam allowance up along this stitch and facing the wrong side of the garment. Press along this fold. The stitch should be slightly more on the wrong side than the right side of the garment.

Step 3: Machine stitch (shown in red thread) along this fold and right next to the staystitch.

Step 4: Press this stitch

Step 5: Trim the seam allowance as close to this stitching as possible. The remaining seam allowance should not be any wider than 1/8 inch. The narrower the better. Be careful not to cut into the garment. Take your time and go slowly. I use duck bill/applique scissors for this step.

Step 6: Press the fabric up one more time, enclosing the raw edge, and making sure the turned up hem is the same width as you press. Again, take your time on this step.

Step 7: Machine stitch (shown in green thread) one more time, trying to stay as close to or on top of your previous stitching. Take your time there is no rush. The slower you go, the neater it will be.

Step 8: Press one final time (right side of fabric shown). The Narrow Machine Hem.