Folk Dress Mash Up - Newlook 6390 & Style 1993

Wanna see something ridiculously unseasonable?

Well here's the folksy dress I made during the heatwave we were having a few months ago. [At this point in time the summer of 2018 is already feeling like one of those things I'm gonna be banging on about until I'm 98, "Oh come here and sit on Nanas knee and let her tell you all about the summer of 2018 where she didn't wear tights for months and dried all her washing on the line.........."] 

So it was a bit of a mash up. The bodice is New look 6390, which I've made approximately 3 million times. The only thing I changed about it was swapping out the straps for tie straps.These are basically two long rectangles per shoulder and then you can tie then as tight or as loose as you want.

 

And the bottom of the dress is Style 1993 which is a vintage pattern that I got at the carboot when I brought a job lot of patterns.

 

Technically you don't need a pattern for the skirt because its basically 3 gathered rectangles. With the top rectangle being the smallest and them gradually getting bigger. 

If I were to make it again I would shorten each rectangle by a couple of inches as the dress ended up being quite long. 

The trims were the main inspiration for the dress. They are beautiful embroidered ribbons in a folksy style that I was given by a lady at the carboot. I've been hoarding them for ages trying to think of a cool way to use them.

I applied each of the trims using a straight stitch BUT I did spend a LOOOONNNNGGG time measuring and marking where they were going to make sure that 1. they didn't get eaten up by seam allowances and 2. That they were level and would match up at the back seams. 

Annoyingly I didn't have quite enough of the embroidered ribbons and the skirt was looking quite right so I used some black ribbon and some blue lacey ribbon as trim as well. 

The dress closes with a lapped zip. Its not my best ever and the top is out by about a centimetre but most of the trims line up and I couldn't really be bothered to unpick the whole thing just to make the back level so I'm leaving it. Realistically If I were a perfectionist I'd change it so it was level but its not something I'm going to see and its a dress that's only suitable for about two months of the year soooo.................. 

The main fabric is a cotton that I got from the abakhan fill a bag sale. It behaved really nicely and luckily I had enough for the whole dress to be in the same fabric including the lining. I had about 2 1/2 metres maybe three and I though I might have left overs but the skirt was really fabric hungry. 

All in all I really love how the dress turned out. Especially seen as this is a dress I just couldn't get out of my head!!! 

But if I were to make it again [Which I probably will if I can find some more embroidered ribbons] then there are a few changes I'd make. 

- Stitch the trims on a bit neater. A few of them are really neat but they took agggeeesss and I'll be the first to admit that I got a bit sloppy and started rushing towards the end. 

- Shorten the skirt pieces as I think their a bit long.

- Extend the bottom two tiers of the skirt to make them more gathered for more impact!!! 

So yeah all in all I'm really pleased with how the dress turned out. I am a bit gutted though because LOL not really the weather to wear it anymore is it? I guess its good because I have something nice to wear next summer! 

In other news!!! 

-Lil man is over his sick bug! [thank god!]

- I seem to have settled into a pretty good rhythm with regards to blogging, school stuff, housework and sewing. Its taken since September but I'm finally there and have achieved balance. Now I just have to hope that I don't loose it all when lil man breaks up for half term! 

and I think that's about it!

Much Love 

Frankie 

xxx

- 

New Look 6390 - Skull Fabric

Yet again I'm behind with blogging. In my defence I was going to blog on Friday BUT we had a new set of kitchen knives delivered and well Rikki ended up slicing his fingers open....So instead we went to A&E and Rikki had five stitches in his finger and I've been listening to him moan ever since.....

This make is ages old, In fact its so old that I wore it all summer and its officially been retired to the bottom of the ironing basket for the past month. I mean who has the energy to iron summer dresses when there not going to be worn!

The pattern is newlook 6390. I demonstrated how to make this at abakhans a few months ago and this is the actual dress I made in the demo. I cut a size 12 [I have a 36" bust] and I had to shorten the straps and remove a wedge from the front neckline to stop it gaping and I took about 2 inches out of the back seam. Oddly for me I didn't shorten the length, mainly because it was the perfect summer length for wearing without tights and not flashing my pants. 

This quilting cotton was from abakhans and was really beautiful to work with. Everything pressed so nicely and the fabric behaved really nicely resulting in the BEST invisible zip I've ever done. There is a bit of rippling at the back so I may have to shorten the bodice a bit but the zip is BANGING! I actually wish I'd taken a better picture because OMG..........

Also eurgh bra straps. One thing I'm not going to miss about summer is having to wear a strapless bra with basically everything to stop my bloody straps showing. Can't see bra straps under a big fluffy jumper now can ya!?

The bodice is fully lined. And in typical Frankie style I used an old pair of curtains instead of just using up the rest of the fashion fabric so now I have 20cm of skull print fabric lying around and nothing to use it on. Note to self : If your going to be left with a piddly bit of fabric for gods sake just line the bodice in the expensive fabric!!!!! 

So yeah I love this dress I wore it a lot over the summer. In particular I think the nipped in waist and flared skirt is very flattering. Plus it was nice and easy to wear when it was stupidly hot and I didn't really want to have to think about actually putting a whole outfit together. 

And how cool is this print!!! I love the way the skulls sort of blend into the pattern so you don't really see the skull until you actually look for them. 

And that's it really this is my 3rd? 4th? version of the dress so by now I really have done the pattern to death and I can't honestly see me making it again for a looonnnggg time. 

In other news:

- I added a few more rows to my miette cardigan and totally balls them up so now I hate it and I can't be bothered to undo them.

- I added a few more hexys to my hexy quilt but its still not growing...... In all honestly I'm already a bit bored with it [hides face in hands]

- I have three quilts ready to be quilted and bound. I sense a big trip to abakhans in my future! 

- I demonstrated at abkahans on sew Saturday! As usual I had a blast! Even if I was supper tired from dealing with Rikkis finger situation the night before!

And that's about it!

Much Love 

Frankie 

Red Floral Newlook 6390

After my frankly rubbish first proper version of the Newlook 6390 pattern I did some serious hacking and tweaking of the pattern. 

Mainly taking ease out if the back seam, shortening the straps and taking a wedge out if the front bodice piece.

And now I'm very happy with the fit. Its definitely worth taking the time to make something fit you properly because it makes all the difference in the finished version and how you feel about wearing it. 

This dress has hardly been of my back in this hot weather. Mainly because it's easy to throw on in the morning and the skirt isn't so short that I feel like my fairy is out.

The fabric is the real star if the show. It was sent to me by the craft cotton company and its one of the most beautiful fabrics I have ever seen. Its got a pattern of vivid flowers on it and everything is outlined in gold. 

To say its so fancy it actually makes a great day to day dress and I've had a lot of compliments but it.

The zip was taken from one of Rikki's old hoodies. I love chunky metal zip because they are indestructible. Well at least they are for me I've not had one break yet.

In fact the only real problem with this dress is that its a pain to find a bra to wear with it. As you can see from my nice bra straps in the below picture. 

There are a few pull lines across the back but I'm not sure if that's just wrinkles from wearing the dress all day or if I need to do some more tweaking.

Happily though this seems to be the perfect length for me. Its long enough to make sure I don't flash my bum when I bend over but its not so long that its midi length. 

I hemmed it by machine because I knew it was going to be washed a lot and I didn't want to have to keep fixing the hem.

I actually wore this dress and demonstrated how to make it at abakhans in Hanley. Which was really lovely. I really enjoy doing the demonstrations because I get to talk to lots of different people! 

That said I've done 2 sewing sessions at my sons school, one for year 3 and one for year 5 and they were a whole new level of stressful! Which I know a lot of people would find silly because its not like having a full time job or anything, but it was 32 children each holding a needle and wanting my undivided attention. Which is hugely stressful for someone who doesn't like children and struggles with new things. That said I'm really proud of myself for managing to get them all to do the task and a lot of them really surprised me with how enthusiastic they were. I've got two more sessions to do year 2 and year 4 and lil man has already asked me if I'm going to do it next year!!! 

In other  news: 

Polly went and snuggled with Rikki last night which is a victory! 

And lil mans teacher came out of school yesterday to personally tell me how pleased she is with the improvement in his handwriting ! 

Much love 

Frankie 

Xxx

The Gingham Dress - Newlook 6390

This is my first version of new look 6390 and I'm gone level with you, its not great.

But I'm showing it anyway because let's be honest everyone makes a toile that's slightly less than wearable every now and again don't they.

Its not too bad from the front. There's some pretty dodgy pattern placement (those gingham squares can be a right Royal pain in the booty) but other than that its not to bad. 

The neckline gapes a bit so I've altered the pattern pieces to remove a wedge from the neckline and I took a bit out of the back seam, and the straps are too long so I've shortened that pattern piece too however its still not a great fit........

The back is where the problem is. Its really really gaping at the top. I'm not sure if I need to take some more out of the back seam or if I stretched the neckline out too much but ether way I think its going to end up being put in the alteration pile

And it does deserve to be altered because this cute could this dress be if it fit properly? The large check gingham is from abakhans and comes in loads of different colours, I think I want pink next.

I especially like the waistband. But to be completely honest it was a short cut for me. I knew that their was no way I'd be able to pattern match the squares so I thought it would be much easier to just cut it on the bias. 

Which does make the waist band more prone to stretching so to make sure this didn't happen I made sure to interface the back of the waistband pieces straight away. It worked really well and i can happily report no stretching.

Currently this is my favourite dress pattern. Before this I made two button up the front ones ( Here and here) which oddly, didn't have any fitting issues. But since this version I made two more which will be up on the blog soon.

And luckily they both fit really nicely.

In other news:

- I'll man has earache, well at least he did I'm kind of praying that its gone now.......because there is nothing worse than watching your baby in pain.

- Polly is still settling in, she's not eating or drinking much still, but she walks nicely on the lead and today she gave me a really big hand lick. Which according to google means that she really likes me so yay!!! 

- I've also photographed a few makes today and I've gotten back into the swing of sewing against and have some projects that I'm really excited about!!!

Much love 

Frankie 

Xxx

Tropical Newlook 6390

I finally managed to get around to taking some pictures of my new makes. I had to order a new remote shutter for my other digital camera and its a bit slower than the one for my slr hence why my face looks so grumpy in all of these pictures. I'm still holding onto hope that my Father in law might be able to fix it [he mends scalextric so hes very good at things like that] But if he can't Rikki has suggested we try getting a second hand lens to use in the hopes that its the lens and not the body of the camera.  

This fabric was sent to me by the craft cotton company. I love a good tropical print but I was concerned this might be a bit much on me and typically I don't wear green but as it goes I LOVE this dress!!!! 

I used Newlook 6390 for the pattern. I've made the dress before but wasn't entirely happy with the fabric I use and to be honest I haven't worn it much. 

I did however really like the shape of the pattern because it does some sort of witchcraft to my waist and makes it look tiny!

I had wanted it to have a front button placket and no zip like my first version however the interfacing I used was much too thick so it was a really struggle to do up the buttons. So instead I stitched the button placket closed by hand and put a lapped zip in the back. 

So technically now the front placket is a faux front but it wasn't meant to be!

The bodice is lined but the skirt isn't. I always worry that lining the bodice will make the dress too warm to wear but it actually means that the bodice is a little bit thick so you can go bra less if you want! Usually I do wear a bra like the pictures at the top, but there's nothing better than being able to whip your bra off if its feeling uncomfortable and knowing the girls aren't going to hit you ankles. 

The buttons for the front of the dress were given to me by my friend Steve, I think either his mum or Nan had brought them originally.

Now here's the really fun bit! If you'd like to learn how to make a dress like this I'll be demonstrating how to make one at Abakans Hanley on Saturday the 9th of June! 

In other news! 

My hair has faded loads since I took these pictures and I'm glad I didn't make it permanent because I'm already a but bored with it to be honest!

Much Love

Frankie 

x