I have a gorgeous little Gigi Young dress that I can't possibly make large enough to fit me since there's so many seams and the fabric is impossible to find in my area. My dress form had to hold her breath just to get it zipped up! ;-) I had trouble describing the fabric to sellers and forgot that I could have just asked here! Doh! It's thick and feels like the ribbon (grograin?) on a good quality hat band. Heavy ribbing but soft like cotton on my hand. Nice silky slip under the main skirt area. There's one rust spot right in the center of the front detail. Tips to get it out?
The fabric would be called faille (pronounced file). Looks/feels like grosgrain (note the s -- it means "big" it means "big grain"). In fact, you could call it grosgrain, too : ). Lovely dress. As for the little spot, it could be rust but could also be the result of wood/paper acids. Have you had it dry-cleaned? Ask them to spot treat it.
Thanks Liza! It has an ancient dry clean label on it so I'll try bringing it to a dry cleaner and see what they think. Thanks for the fabric info. I should know how to spell grosgrain, one of my favourite F1 drivers is named Grosjean, same pronunciation for the 'gros' part. The dress feels wonderful in the hand but sadly will never fit me. Good item to copy the pattern though, the parts are very distinct and look easy to copy using muslin or paper. Thanks again!
