Threadcount 1607 Shirtdress

There is something very satisfying about making shirts, In fact as much as I love a quick and dirty project I love a slow project as well and shirts are an awesome slow project, lots of top stitching, lots of ironing and lots of construction!

Anyway this time the shirt pattern I went for is for a shirt dress, its Threadcount 1607 and it came free with Love Sewing Magazine  whilst I love sewing magazines I only buy them when I really like the pattern otherwise I'dd just end up with loads of patterns that I'll never use. Anyway I was really really drawn to this shirt dress because of how simple it is. I immediately started thinking about how well it would work for both summer and winter!  

Anyways I actually cut this out about two months ago so I could sew it up and wear it on our honey moon then I promptly forgot about it in the panic of OMG I'M GETTING MARRIED and only found it when I was trying to reorganise my house.

Here's how it turned out. I used a white cotton that's covered in little tiny dots from the craft cotton company I can't find it on the website now though. The cotton did behave beautifully and I sewed the whole thing up in about two days.

I have honestly never been so proud of something I've made, I mean seriously everything just slotted into place perfectly. I did meet a few snags though,

I forgot to add interfacing to the collar stand so it was all kinds of floppy and gross [that sounds ruder than I thought it would] But I had an absolute genius moment and stitched some gross grain ribbon to the inside to stiffen it up [also sounds filthy! I wonder if these innuendos are in anyway related to the fact I'm watching magic mike right now!]

It sorted the problem right out and I'm so pleased I manged to bypass my own stupidity. 

Now the button holes went in beautifully including the one of the collar stand which is usually a beast! But I had another idiot moment and lost one of my buttons, now I did have 12 buttons and I'd already done 10 button holes on the front placket and 1 per cuff and then.............I lost one. I spent a good half hour crawling on my floor trying to find it but sadly no luck which left me with 12 button holes and 11 buttons!

Its a good job I think feature buttons are cute right? And its an even better job that I like the sleeves rolled up better as well!

Now pattern wise its pretty cool, I cut as size 12 and everything fits pretty well apart from the collar which looks a bit big even when its done up. And I must have taken I good 5/6 inches off the length? It was a massive chunk either way and now I can't decide if it was drafted for super tall people, OR if I'm super short OR If I'm just a bit trampy and like wearing my dresses too short?

Construction wise I inserted the sleeves in flat and did the side seams and shoulders on my over locker the rest is done on my regular machine. Including all the top stitching.

All in all I really like it, its a very simple shirt, It doesn't even have a yoke, actually I kind of wish it did have a yoke just to fancy it up a bit? I loves a good yoke , I think it makes for a better fit. Speaking of fit its pretty good apart from the collar issue but its is just an aline shape so it looks much better belted! Its got no other darts or shaping.

And the instructions are pretty clear and I did follow them pretty religiously for most of it, Until I reached the home stretch and then I just made it up. 

Now my last disaster was by far the worst! I put it on the day after I made it and low and behold I got pasta sauce on it and then as I was blotting the pasta sauce I also noticed I;d managed to get some gloss paint on it!

I don't think I'm really describing how frustrating it was to stain something I;d just finished so here's the little rant I had in transcript [Note: I have changed all of the swear words to various fruits and vegetables for those of you who are of a more delicate disposition, those of you who aren't can have fun deciding what words you would have used] 

Frankie: Oh for broccolis sake

Rikki: What?

Frankie; I've got pasta carroting sauce on my new Banana shirt and its going to leave a Apple stain!

Rikki; Oh

Frankie: Oh mother Potato

Rikki; what now?

Frankie; Its got kiwiing cauliflowering gloss paint on it as well, that's never going to swedeing come out! Its ruined! Its pomegranated! I can't believe I did all that beaning top stitching and now I've pearing ruined it!

Rikki: If it helps I didn't like it anyway..........

Frankie; Well your just a lettucing idiot then aren't you?

Frankie:MUSHROOM!

So yeah as you can imagine I was chuffed to bits...... 

Anyway the pasta sauce stains have come out and the gloss pone has faded a lot and I have high hopes that maybe it might fade over time?

Any ideas on how to get rid of it?

Much Love

Frankie

The Beautiful Disaster Dress

When I first started blogging I promised myself this blog would be a true account of everything I made. The good. The bad and the Ugly. Now sometimes I stick to that and sometimes I don't, it depends on my mood, but I had to show you this because I still love it! It just isn't my dress!

Disclaimer ; I'm wearing sunglasses in this pictures......inside. yes I've become THAT person! But in my defence I have an eye infection [and no glasses looonnnggg story] and I haven't got any make up on so I thought screw it and threw on my sunglasses! I also wore these shopping today and got a series of withering looks from the elderly "In my day it was considered rude to wear sunglasses in doors!" 

Okay so I love the dress, Its beautiful and Oh momma wait until you see that back but there is a glaring issue! Well two actually,

Number 1 - The fit, stupid me decided to make this a racer back and kept trying it on with my bra and then oh my gosh go to take the pictures and lo and behold I need to remove my bra. And shock horror catastrophe the ummmm tatas "hang" slightly differently than when they have some support [I am entirely blaming lil man for this, seriously the things pregnancy did to my body is unreal!] Anyway whilst I don't feel that my unsupported bosom is incredibly unsightly, it does create a different shape. If your currently pondering your own tatas going "my boobs don't move when I take my bra off?" Congratulations, now stop wearing a bra your a waste of good underwire!

So that's point number one ....and possibly two as there are two of them.

Here's the back! Stupid little troublemaker, I think I ended up with fourteen buttons in total and Rikki had to put me into it [with minimal whining, I'm shocked actually he paused his game and everything!] This idea was inspired by Victorian gowns and was pretty easy to do, I just wedged fourteen ribbon loops between the lining and the outer fabric, and then sewed on 14 buttons, not fourteen matching ones because I didn't have fourteen matching ones that worked so I alternated between two sets, and I think its rather a nice effect! 

Anyway issue number 3 [yes I've decided to count my boobs separately] 

I made a dress the exact shade of my skin! The exact shade! Now my skin goes my many names some of my least favourites are white, off white, milk bottle, pasty and sickly.

my favourites are chinadollesque, pale and ethereal [seriously when an old man at the pub described my complexion as ethereal nearly asked him to marry me there and then]

Anyway I tried to hide this with accessories to break up the colour but sadly I think it means the dress just isn't for me [I'm actually worried that if people have the brightness set too high as they are reading this they might just think I've made a dress from my own skin.

This is sooooo posed it makes me vomit in my own mouth a little. But the dress looks pretty cute! Which means I don't know what to do, and boy do I hate not knowing what to do:

I love the colour

I love the back

I love the fact that its well made [its the shizz]

BUT! 

ITS THE SAME SHADE AS MY SKIN!!!! I look like I'm auditioning for the lead role in the silence of the lambs!

Oops forgot to mention any pattern details! the front and side bodice are from the princess seamed dress from the great british sewing be and the racer back is a redraft from the back piece of that bodice too. The skirt is just a simple gathered skirt. The fabric is some sort of poly silky stuff? and I inserted a short invisible zip below the buttons and you can't even see it! #winning

I mean I could keep it and see what happens, Rikki's already said he doesn't think its too bad, I mean I might get a tan? I haven't In 23 years but you never know.........

Or I can give it too my mother in law, BUT then I'll have to alter the bodice [which is fully lined eurgh] and the length... and I'm not sure I'm that nice?

So what do you think?

keep or ditch?

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx