 I have talked to you guys a little bit lately about my evolving personal style, and I think I've finally hit the nail on the head with this outfit. But before I tell you about how it came together, let's rewind a couple of hours till this morning when I woke up on my silk pillowcases with my silk eye mask and in the same silk dress I wore out the door. Yep, this dress is actually a nightgown. I can't wait to tell you all about it, but real quick, if you're new here, I'm Lindsay. Welcome. I sew my own clothes and I'm so glad you found me. Please be sure to introduce yourself in the comments so that I can give you a formal hello. And for everyone watching, please be sure to like this video so YouTube will know that it's awesome and suggested to other people. All right, let's get into this outfit. Now, don't be mad, but I did not make the dress. I know, I know. That said, it is awesome for many reasons that I think will blow your mind. Some of the main reasons that we get into sewing our own clothes is because we have so many issues when it comes to ready to wear. They never fit the process by which fast fashion is made, is so bad for the environment, and a myriad of other reasons, right? Well, let me introduce you to Lily Silk. Lily Silk is a clothing brand specializing in silk garments, sleepwear, bedding, and accessories. One of the things I love about them is that they are zero waste, using fabric scraps to make accessories like eye masks and scrunchies. What they aren't able to make into accessories, they then recycle with TerraCycle, a world-renowned recycling company committed to zero waste production. They are also environmentally conscious using silk source from mulberry trees, which require less water than cotton to grow. Mulberry silk is called the queen of fibers and is 100% natural. Lily Silk goes to great lengths to certify that their products are also clean and toxin-free. So, zero waste, toxin-free, eco-heroes, what could be better? What if I told you that you could get them to make a garment using your exact measurements? Yep, they have a made to measure option. As an extreme pear shape with an 11 inch difference between my waist and hip, slip dresses like this never fit off the rack. It either fits my bust and is too tight on my hips or fits my hips and I'm swimming in the bust. Lily Silk makes it so easy to make a custom garment. Just click this box. A form pops up. You enter your measurements and order as usual. It was seriously so easy. In addition to this garment being literally made just for me, it's also bias cut, which I know I've raved about in many videos before. And I'll say it again, if you've never tried a bias cut garment, you are missing out. No matter what your problem areas are or your size or anything about your body that you tend to nitpick, bias cut will work miracles. It hugs all the right places and conceals the trouble ones. It's truly magic. I got the relaxed fit long silk nightgown in chocolate, which actually has this really pretty purple undertone to it in the sunlight. My pillowcases are the terse envelope silk pillowcases. Just look at all these colors that they come in. One to match whatever your decor is. And with every purchase, you get a free zero waste product. So I chose the eye mask in dark blue. All of these products are some of the best quality I've come across. And if you've noticed my hair being a little bit more shiny, it's because silk pillowcases are literally therapy for your hair while you sleep. Lily Silk was kind enough to offer to coupon code for all of you. Use code SOWINGBFF12 for 12% off your order side wide. And if you end up spending more than $200, use code SOWINGBFF20 for 20% off of that order. And don't forget your zero waste product. One really cool thing they do when you order the customized size is you get a label that says custom made. It's such a nice touch and so similar to the things that we do when we make our own garments, right? I just love that detail. So when it was time to get dressed for the day, I knew I'd be wearing my new dress, duh. But how'd I style it with my evolving personal style in mind? I mean celebs like Nina Dobrev, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Megan Trainor are all wearing Lily Silk. So I knew I had to step it up. I wanted the simple design of the nightgown to remain highlighted while also adding a cool, comfy, chic vibe as well. The silk of the dress is also shiny and beautiful, so playing with textures would be a must as well. And all the while, on my mind was my new Remi sweater from Petites to Tree. This is the Sew Together pattern from March, and I have thoughts. The design of this pattern is very loose fitting, but even keeping that in mind, there's still a lot of ease throughout. Based on my calculations, which are really a guess because there were no waistline markings on the pattern, there's close to 20 inches of ease in the waist and even more than that in the bust. I fell between a large and a XL in the body measurement chart, and I opted to size down to the large, and I could have easily gone to a medium and still achieve that oversized, slouchy look. My only saving grace was that this fabric, which we'll talk more about in a little bit, is pretty drapey. If you want to learn more about how I pick my pattern size, download my Fast Fit Worksheet. It's the exact same system I use for every pattern to determine which size to cut, factoring both the design and wearing ease. It works for me, and it's worked for so many people as well. In addition to the additional width, these patterns are drafted for a range of heights from 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 7 inches. That in itself is confusing because there's just one length for each style and each size, so if I made the size large, was it drafted for the 5'5 person or the 5'7 person? And because there's no waistline measurement, there was really no way to tell how long this thing was going to be. In the end, the hem of the shortest part of the front ends up hitting me right below my natural waist, and I'm 5'5. I don't know if that's the intention or not, I just know that's how it fits me without any length alterations. And honestly, I like the length of the front, but it scoops down a little low in the back and ends up riding up when I have the ties tied. So I think for my next version, I'm going to lean into the crop length and shorten it all by about 2 inches all around. It will give me an extreme crop in the front, but should hit my back at a nice length. Okay, all that said, I did do a little styling hack for this outfit today. I wanted it to hit higher up, aka be shorter, to give better proportions with the length of the dress. So I folded up the hem band twice and then threaded the ties through the side slit. It seems to be staying in place, it's giving the look I wanted, but I do lose the coolness of that gathered band on the bottom. Oh well, just a little give and take. Speaking of the band, I know I mentioned in the Know Before You Sew video for this pattern that I wanted to see if I could make the bands look a little less slouchy and more intentional than the sample makes on the website. So I added a piece of one and a half inch wide soft elastic into the band and sewed the ties onto the end of it. This way my band has a little bit more structure and the ties look a little less sloppy. For the fabric, I shopped my stash, so it's no longer available, but it was originally from Joanne, maybe late 2020. It is a nice lighter weight double knit, has a decent amount of stretch, but also has nice strength, which makes the dolman sleeves of this top lay nicely against the body without looking too bulky. Fitting this was obviously not very difficult. As I explained earlier, the whole thing is very loose fitting. I didn't end up shortening the sleeve length by two inches to ensure the cuff would hit in the right place and reduce pulling at my wrist, but other than that I didn't make any other adjustments to the fit at all. I think for the next version, instead of chopping off two inches from the wrist side of the sleeve, I'll shorten the drop shoulder by two inches instead. That combined with shortening the bodice, like I mentioned before, should give the right proportions for my short waist. And because I always like to leave you guys on a positive note, there really is a great little sneaky trick for sewing knit bands in this pattern that I can't say I've ever seen before, but it's brilliant. If you want to know how it's done, you'll have to make the top or just stick around for my next knit sew-along since I'll probably only be sewing knit bands this way from here on out. I've got a ton of links in the description box, including the top pattern and of course links to Lily Silk where you can grab this silk nightgown, pillowcases, apparel, and so much more. I genuinely love what they are doing, and I know you will too. I've also linked my most recent pattern review for this plaid jacket here in the Inslate, so if you haven't seen that video yet, click on the bottom right of your screen and it'll take you right there. But that is going to do it for me today, y'all. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you all very soon. Bye!