African Wax Cotton Princess Seamed Dress

There's not really a huge amount to say about this dress. I used one of the fabrics from my shopping trip to abakhans . This one is an African wax cotton print with sparkles on it.

I brought it because...... well sparkles!

Actually there was another one I liked but some of the colours had ran so I got this one instead.

I used the princess seamed bodice from the second gbsb book , added a lace waistband because I'm still having issues with the length of this bodice and the skirt is just a simple gather. I'm not 100% on this waistband to be honest it was about 3 inches longer but I decided to completely unpick the zip and the bodice so I could shorten it. [you may have seen my blurry selfie on instagram where I was contemplating altering it.]

I loved the lace waistband I did in this dress so I'm not sure why I don't love this one as much?

I do love the ombre tones in this fabric, and Its nice to have a print with some colour in it but also with some black and grey too. I didn't really bother with pattern matching as there wasn't enough fabric. Instead I just tried to make sure that the black and greys were roughly in the same place.

I used a beige zip with this because that's what was to hand, Its not great but it'll do. As it goes I'm pretty sure this zip is cursed. I put it in no bother, then unpicked it because of the waistband, put it back in no bother , put the dress on, took these pictures and then suddenly the whole thing was off its bloody runners. I used the f word, the c word and the b word but I got it back on and fixed the issues took me half an hour and three pinterest tutorials though.

I hate it when I have snags making a project. Because it makes me hate the dress a little bit. I guess its like when your horribly sick after drinking a lot and then your like "NOOOOOOO alcohol is the devil" and avoid it for months and then you see it and your like "Oh hey buddy, your kinda cute! " So yeah I hope I wear this dress and don't just avoid it because it holds bad zip memories.

Length is good, It has a teeny tiny hem because I really had to use every inch of this fabric. Hence why the waistband is lace and not material. I think there was about a metre and a half? If that? It was a struggle to squeeze the pieces out anyway. I have another wax cotton and there's about the same amount, I think for that though I might try a slightly shorter length and try and get a waistband out of it too.

Finishing wise, there's neck and armhole facing and both of those are top stitched. The waistband is top stitched down with the seams away from the lace. I did a double row of stitching on the seams and pinked them. 

The cottons got fantastic structure, I thought it might be uncomfortable because its so stiff but it actually works really nicely and gives the skirt a nice amount of volume!

All in all I'm very pleased even if I did have issues with the blooming zip! I think I like the waistband, I like that's its see through. I think its because I have a soft spot for the crop top and skirt trend but I don't have the confidence to wear it, this feels like my little cheating way of doing it.

Not much other news to report to be honest. I feel like in in a pretty good sewing groove so all is well.

Much Love

Frankie

xxx