Blue African Wax Print Cotton Dress

Its no secret that I'm a fan of an African wax print cotton. I mean seriously digging through the bargain pre cut bins at Abakhans is my happy place!

Anyway I think this piece was about a metre and a half and it had more of the awesome sparkles that Abakhan seem to be featuring in their wax cottons! Its another panelesque print so some careful planning was used when trying to work out how to cut out the bodice.

Anyway because I am the most boring person in the world I basically decided to make a copy of this dress. Yes I know I'm dull but its my favourite dress to wear at the moment and if it ain't broke don't fix it.

So its the same princess seam bodice and box pleat skirt [both from the second GBSB book] as before in fact the only thing I forgot to do was put the slit in the front of the bodice. But now I'm wondering if forgetting was actually a stroke of luck because my centre pattern down the front is actually pretty bang on.

The back is less bang on but the pattern wasn't printed on grain so it was a bit of a struggle. And the skirt isn't central either which is because I stupidly lined up the bottom of the skirt and not the top, like a muppet! Its not something that'll bother me too much but its annoying that I made mistakes because I was tired!

Yeah the back is super crumpled, I wore this dress all yesterday and didn't get around to taking pictures till the whole thing was a crumpled mess. So I decided to leave it, Get up early and iron the dress in the morning and take pictures today.......Who was I kidding? Get up early to iron? no you can have the crumpled version thank you very much.

 By the way I did an invisible zip which went in really nicely. And everything matched up on the waistband too [Insert smug face here]  

So yeah I grand success even if I did screw up on a few things. I love the colour and how the pattern placement turned out.

In other news....

Its less than a month this my birthday! YAY!

But today I feel pretty grouchy to be honest, I'm hoping its just a touch of PMS but all I want to do is sit and watch Disney in my jammies and maybe have a lil cry? however that's looking pretty unlikely seen as lil man is on super awful whingey form today. Yay...... I might try and do some yoga later and let go a bit, but I'm not sure if it will help, Ideally I'd eat a bar of cadburys whilst reading a sewing magazine but its raining and nothing depresses me more than a walk to the shops in the rain!

And so we don't end on a completely sucky note, I tried lil mans new school uniform on him yesterday and he looks ADORABLE!!! I mean I'm not saying my kids the cutest in the world but its going to be a pretty close race! [totally regretting calling him a whinge bag before, he's sitting good as gold doing a puzzle right now]

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

African Wax Print Dress

This is one of those dresses when you finish it and you just can't help but smile cos its just so cracking!

The fabric was this African wax print cotton from abakhan fabrics. Its a panel print which is always a bit of a mind boggler when it comes to cutting out, and it was a pre cut but for less than £4.00 you can't really moan can you? Well you could but its considered rude..... [sorry about the naff quality of this picture it was taken on my phone moments before I started cutting out.]

If your thinking of using a wax cotton I'd definitely recommend it. Don't be put of by how it feels in the shop. [which is pretty similar to card to be honest] when you've washed it, it will soften up to like a quilting cotton type weight? I think its a great option for beginners actually because it handles and presses so nicely! 

Now for the cutting out. I decided a princess seam bodice was the best way to go because I thought the front seams would be less disruptive to the pattern than darts. So the bodice was cut with a centre fold running down the large pattern section and both the skirt pieces were cut with the fabric folded the other way! and then the waistband was cut from the middle part where the skirt pieces had been cut.

I'm chuffed to death with the pattern on the bodice but I wish I'd centred the pattern on the skirt pieces. I'm not sure if I had enough fabric to, but it would have been a nice touch.

The bodice is the princess seam bodice from the second GBSB book and the skirt is the box pleat skirt from the same book. This fabric loves to pleat by the way! Its like "yeah! fold me and iron me and I'll be the neatest lil pleat you ever did see!" I also used the waistband from the box pleat skirt because I've had issues with the bodice being too short before now.

It was quite nice to realise that the box pleat skirt and the bodice fit together without any alterations. I don't know if its a fluke just for me. But if it isn't it might have been nice if they'd mentioned it in the book. A girl likes to have options ya know.

I did add a slit detail to the front of the bodice just to keep things a bit different. This might actually be my favourite part it add s a classy bit of boobage without being like "HELLO PLEASE STARE AT MY VERY NEARLY EXPOSED BREASTS!" 

Its not the neatest slit in the world [god that sounds filthy!] but it was my first one ever so I can't really complain. 

The bodice and waistband are both lined. I actually finished the inside of the lining by hand which is pretty standard for me. What wasn't standard was me sewing my unpicker lid into the lining! I was stood after finishing, feeling like the queen of Sheba in my new frock having a quick bodice feel [which is kind of like groping yourself to check for excess fabric] and then was like OMG what that in my back? and then I realised! Damm near peed my pants laughing! Luckily for me the zip had been a swine to get my needle though so my stitches were pretty big and I managed to squeeze it out! 

If you want a giggle there's a cracking selfie of me on instagram giggling away when I just realised what I'd done!

Anyway disaster averted! I did a concealed zip at the back seam... well at least I tried. And the hem is a teeny weeny 1cm because of the length.

Anyway! Thoughts?

Love this dress, in fact no! I LOVE THIS DRESS! I feels all kinds of sassy! 

Love the box pleat skirt its pretty darn flattering.

Lengths good!

Looks cute with black tights and a black cardi which is a winner.

Its just one of those projects that turned out exactly as I wanted!

Although the zip could be better and so could the keyhole.

The fits pretty smack on as well, but to be honest seen as I've made this bodice so many times now I'd be a bit ashamed if I screwed up the fit!

Much Love

A proper chuffed 

Frankie

xxx