Green Ponte Simple Sew Skater Dress #006

I don't want to sound too smug but I've started to do my Christmas wrapping and about 90% of my presents are already brought. I am on the ball this year! I am a Christmas ninja! Which probably means I'll get hideous flu in December and be completely wiped for Christmas day. Although I hope not because LOL someone has to eat the piggies in blankets don't they! 

Anyway onto the dress! The pattern is the simple sew skater dress. Which costs £10 on their website but I think I got it for free in a magazine? That or someone gave it too me? I definitely didn't buy it anyway. The pattern has fairly simple instructions but because its got a faced neckline it actually works pretty well with the simple instructions. It says its suitable for adventurous beginners but I could see someone who maybe had only made 2 or 3 dresses. The only really difficult bit is the zip. 

It also comes in sizes 8-18 and skater dresses are very flattering on all shapes. 

The pattern calls for woven fabric but I used this ponte fabric because it has zero stretch and I thought the thickness and weight of it might make it a nice winter dress. The fabric was given to me by my friend, I think it originally came from his Nans house? 

Typically I don't wear green because I think it washes me out a bit. But because this is such a dark green I don;t think its too bad? 

Its got a full circle skirt and we all know how much I LOVE a circle skirt! The only issue I had with the skirt is that it seams a bit short? I cut out the pattern, and hemmed it with a 1cm seam allowance [which is pretty standard] and whilst the length is okay on me I do wonder if I would like a few more cm? Its mid thigh on me and I'm about 5 foot four. So if your taller or want more coverage then you might want to think about adding some extra length to the pattern pieces. 

I used a metal zip for the back because I love an exposed metal zip. Its pretty neat insertion. Plus you can see my tattoo which is always a bonus.  

I had to belt the dress because It feels really busty on me and I felt like I needed to emphasis my waist. I didn't want to be wondering around just looking like a pair of boobs....Oddly enough Rikki didn't think it needed the belt. 

Next time I might add an inch to the bottom of the bodice pieces so it hits my waist better. 

The other issue I had was with inserting the sleeves. There are no marking on the sleeves to tell you which part is the back of the sleeve and which part is the front. Well at least I couldn't see any notches .Although my copy might be an older one than the one on the website so it might have been changed. I;m going to show it to either my auntie or my mums neighbour who are both really good dressmakers and see if one of them can work out which is the back so I can mark it on myself.

As a result I'm pretty sure that one sleeve is inserted the wrong way around..... Its irritating at first but after wearing it all day I found it wasn't noticeable after a bit.

But that said I do like the dress. It was a really quick make, I did most of it on my overlocker and I do think it will be a good dress for winter with some thick tights and boots. 

In other news! 

Christmas is already hitting us. We have school trips in the works and family events are already being booked in. As much as I love Christmas I do tend to find it all a bit tiring! That said at least I don;t have to worry about making Christmas dinner because we alternate between Rikkis Mum and his Nan. This year we are at his mums which is good because its not far from our house so we can pop home for forgotten bits if we need to.. 

I've been filming a lot of you tube videos and happily I'm enjoying it again. Its much easier doing them on my video camera rather than my phone and I'm starting to get to grips with the editing software now [Mainly because bless his socks Rikki has been very patient with me!]

Right now I have to make a Inn Keepers costume so wish me luck! What happened to the days of the school having a cache of costumes for the kids to use? My primary school had a load of "robes" that we wore every year and the most we ever had to do was bring in a tea towel to wear on our heads [Although now I think of it they might have provided these too!]. But now apparently parents have to buy a costume which sort of worries me with the whole waste thing? I mean I'm guessing that not all of the parents are keeping the costumes in case they need using again? And they are not donating them to the school because then their would be no need to buy costumes? So I can only assume that they are going into the bin! Which is a bit sad really isn't it.

Much Love 

Frankie 

P.S If anyone knows what the inn keeper wore when he turned down Mary and Joseph please let me know! All I can think about is Basil Fawlty! 

High Waisted Circle skirt

I'm not sure whether I like this or whether I hate it yet. From some angles I feel it makes me look really wide..... like a truck.

It's a circle skirt {using my own method} attached to a Clemence skirt waistband that I extended to 8 inches, to make it a high "high" waisted skirt. I didn't have any heavy weight interfacing so I just used some Hessian that I had in my stash. {I think Hessian is the right word, its like potato sack fabric}

The fabric was free from a friend who gave me a roll of this fabric. and the zip is re-purposed from one of lil mans old clothes. I did a lapped zip insertion again but you can't really tell because of how bulky both the zip and the fabric are.   

When it was finished I had to shorten it by about 6 inches but other than that I just did a standard hem. Although it only has one full row of hem stitching, generally I like to do two rows but my bobbin ran out half way and I wasn't in love enough to actually rewind the bobbin for this one project.  Luckily it's not that noticeable. 

There's a box pleat at the front that I put in to use up the excess, I like it though because it means there's less chance of me flashing my pants when I sit down.

Because of how wide I think it makes me look wish the full waistband I've been folding it down by about two inches. At least I learnt something though, If I'm doing something this high waisted I need to curve the waistband to the curves of my body more, so I look less wide. 

In other news I haven't posted for a few days because poor Rikki came down with a migraine on Wednesday morning and was really sick all sodding day! {We had planned to have a romantic breakfast pancake meal but that went out the window after the noises I heard from the bathroom}

So yeah that was awesome, then being the sensible human I decided to sleep in the man room so that if it was a virus at least one of us wouldn't be infected! And then lil man woke up at 3am! YES! 3am with a bad dream and came into bed with me.... In the man room.....on the futon..... the uncomfortable futon......which lil man soon hogged all the his lonesome.

And he made my arm numb........ Life's a blast isn't it?

Luckily everyone's feeling better now and we haven't had a bad dream since. 

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx