The Lesser Spotted Lilou Dress

So here's my latest make I cranked this out in one evening after Rikki had gone on his night shift, I'd already cut the pieces earlier so all I had to do was stitch them together, and watch episodes of "The Affair" which is confusing me because why would you sleep with some old guy when you have Pacey from Dawsons Creek as your husband? Bewildering to say the least.

The fabric came from my lovely pen friend [the more observant of you will notice the fabric from my last dress also came from lovely pen friend! She was kind enough to send me a lil parcel of fabric she wouldn't use and I immediately put all other ideas to one side to focus on them! What can I say I have a short attention span.] Anyway this cotton is printed with birds and swirls and lovely pen friend thinks it might herald from Singapore, I think it was hand printed using blocks because the pattern rep isn't exactly the same and you can see where it doesn't always line up. I really should have taken a picture of before I cut into it, but I'm impatient so I'll just describe it.

The green part you can see at the bottom of the dress ran down one selvedge, up from that was a row of creepy looking birds [I'll instagram those next chance I get as I don't have a picture.] And then up from that the plumes and to the top selvedge was their "plumes" I think that's the right word and you know feathery bits and they were all pretty and swirly. 

Naturally the print of the fabric dictated my pattern placement, I chose to have the green boarder at the hem of the skirt with the birds and then use the "plumes" for the bodice because I wouldn't need to pattern match the swirls.

Got to say I'm really glad I thought about it and didn't rush in because I could have really messed things up.

The dress pattern I used was naturally was Lilou from Tilly and the buttons. Which is my favourite dress pattern for displaying an interesting print. [also used here, here, here, here and here.]

However to keep things fresh I decided to alter the back bodice piece to give it a low back. At some point I'll write a quick thing about how I did it because it really is simple.  

I really love how it turned out with the pattern placement and the style of the dress, did I also mention that I added pockets? In an effort to make my clothes as wearable as possible I added pockets because I always need somewhere to keep my phone and chewing gum [I chew a lot of gum, its a bad habit but my breathe is always minty fresh.]

I like the safari vibe the dress has, I don't think I'd look out of place riding an elephant in this dress. Although is riding elephants cruel? Because people ride horses and I think they like it? Do elephants like it? I think I might have to do some research before I hop on to one.

The hems a good length, I could go shorter but then I'd loose some of the lovely boarder so I think it will stay as is, plus its more modest if I do end up on an elephant.

There's so many pictures of this because I love it so much, although I think it might need a belt of some sort to define the waist with it being such a large and busy print.

Naturally because of the low back I'm having to let the "girls" hang free, which doesn't actually bother me too much, probably because of the full bodice lining, its an extra layer of protection against the.....ahem.....cold.

It's not wonky I promise but it does look it in this picture!

So yeah, 

Yay for Lilou!

Yay for the girls!

Yay for pen friends

and Yay for elephants!!!!

much love 

Frankie 

xxx