Falling in Love with the Wrong Fabric!

In my quest for the perfect Ocean-Blues-Elegant-Ethereal-Drapey-Beachy-Silk to use for my Beach Fantasy Dress, I came across this:



An undeniably Gorgeous Silk Charmeuese print. That it was located in Hong Kong (!!) and the wedding was a mere 6 weeks away didn't deter me, I was in love!

It had it all: the deep blue of a storm tossed sea, green and every shade of turquoise with subtle highlights that looked like the morning sun reflecting off a calm inlet. There were even the golden shades of virgin sand beneath your feet...

I had found my perfect fabric. It was mine. I had to have it. No other fabric would do after seeing this lovely.

I dutifully awaited it's arrival from the far east. Surprisingly, I didn't have long to wait, 10 days perhaps. When it arrived it was even more vibrant and beautiful in person, just stunning!

The quality, however, left much to be desired. The first problem I noticed was a printing error where there were two 1/4" in dots devoid of any dye at the same place in EVERY Repeat. It was almost as if a piece of fuzz got stuck on the printing plate. (If they even use a 'Printing Plate' for fabric, lol)

The fabric was busy, the dots were small, the repeat was large, the dress was made of strips: I would make it work. If I couldn't cut around them, I would dye them with a Q-tip!

The far greater quality issue arose when I started tearing the fabric to get a straight edge. That's when it really hit home that there is Good Silk Charmeuse and then there is Baaad Silk Charmeuse. And this was definitely Baaad Silk Charmeuese. So bad in fact, that if I looked at it wrong the threads would slip in a BIG way, to the point of leaving actual holes in the fabric.

How on earth was I going to sew this stuff?~ Grrrr