Red Floral Newlook 6390

After my frankly rubbish first proper version of the Newlook 6390 pattern I did some serious hacking and tweaking of the pattern. 

Mainly taking ease out if the back seam, shortening the straps and taking a wedge out if the front bodice piece.

And now I'm very happy with the fit. Its definitely worth taking the time to make something fit you properly because it makes all the difference in the finished version and how you feel about wearing it. 

This dress has hardly been of my back in this hot weather. Mainly because it's easy to throw on in the morning and the skirt isn't so short that I feel like my fairy is out.

The fabric is the real star if the show. It was sent to me by the craft cotton company and its one of the most beautiful fabrics I have ever seen. Its got a pattern of vivid flowers on it and everything is outlined in gold. 

To say its so fancy it actually makes a great day to day dress and I've had a lot of compliments but it.

The zip was taken from one of Rikki's old hoodies. I love chunky metal zip because they are indestructible. Well at least they are for me I've not had one break yet.

In fact the only real problem with this dress is that its a pain to find a bra to wear with it. As you can see from my nice bra straps in the below picture. 

There are a few pull lines across the back but I'm not sure if that's just wrinkles from wearing the dress all day or if I need to do some more tweaking.

Happily though this seems to be the perfect length for me. Its long enough to make sure I don't flash my bum when I bend over but its not so long that its midi length. 

I hemmed it by machine because I knew it was going to be washed a lot and I didn't want to have to keep fixing the hem.

I actually wore this dress and demonstrated how to make it at abakhans in Hanley. Which was really lovely. I really enjoy doing the demonstrations because I get to talk to lots of different people! 

That said I've done 2 sewing sessions at my sons school, one for year 3 and one for year 5 and they were a whole new level of stressful! Which I know a lot of people would find silly because its not like having a full time job or anything, but it was 32 children each holding a needle and wanting my undivided attention. Which is hugely stressful for someone who doesn't like children and struggles with new things. That said I'm really proud of myself for managing to get them all to do the task and a lot of them really surprised me with how enthusiastic they were. I've got two more sessions to do year 2 and year 4 and lil man has already asked me if I'm going to do it next year!!! 

In other  news: 

Polly went and snuggled with Rikki last night which is a victory! 

And lil mans teacher came out of school yesterday to personally tell me how pleased she is with the improvement in his handwriting ! 

Much love 

Frankie 

Xxx