The Jumpsuit That Wasn't

This project nearly became a total fail, as in I nearly cried and swore myself off sewing for life, but I persevered and got something wearable in the end.

So hears my tale of woe [you can skip this bit if you want and just go and look at the pretty pictures, but I warn you I am going to be pretty hilarious, and you don't want to miss that]

Now it all started when lovely pen friend gave me a length of orange black and white fabric in sort of a block printed geometric design [yes I should have took a picture] Anyway as soon as I saw it I thought, Jumpsuit or even better playsuit! One like the brightly patterned ones that you see in the high street, something cool and wearable that would look casual and relaxed for the summer.

So I jumped straight in head first, and traced the jumpsuit pattern from the Great British Sewing Bee book, however I shortened the legs to make it a play suit and changed the neckline slightly, I lowered it and omitted the frill. So far all was going well. Now for the cutting, I had originally wanted to cut the shorts part from the darker panel section of the fabric, but it wasn't wide enough so I had to cut the shorts from the orange and white part and the top from the black and orange part. [traditionally its considered more slimming to wear the darker colour on your bottom half, or at least that was my thinking]

Anyway I sewed it up and experienced no problems until I came to put it on, it was tight, I mean really tight. So I decided to do a quick fix job and added a waistband to give me some more length in the torso. But it didn't work.... At all.  I actually have pictures of me on it, but I'm not posting them on-line because its just a mess, and I look a mess and even for the sake of honest blogging I am not posting that crap on the internet. I have no intention of being a meme at any point in my life. And if I post those pictures I will become one. It was just awful! It was baggy around the top and tight around the legs and the shorts were too long and it actually looked like my crotch was eating the fabric , seriously it was like a scene from "teeth". Now I'm not sure what happened but I showed my mum and we concluded that it was the combination of my long torso and large posterior that led to the hideous fit issues. 

Naturally though I didn't give up because I'm a trooper and I love the fabric!!! So I added lace! seventies style lace. They say you can't polish a turd...... But you can roll it in glitter! No I'm joking it still looked like crap so I ripped off all the lace, cursed my mothers family genes that meant my bottom made the crotch look like the camel scene from Lawrence of Arabia, cut the top off and ended up with this.

Which is pretty cute huh? [you can also see in this picture that my bum might not have been the only culprit, I think my hips threw in their own crotch distorting wizardry, GOD DAMM YOU WOMANLY CURVES ]

But yeah my bum does pack some punch! But back to the top, its cute and I really love it, its great for chucking on with jeans and skirts and I see many more in my future. Its very wearable to say its made from a woven fabric.

That my phone in my pocket, I don't have a rectangular cheek I promise.

I like it better tucked in, but I think the pattern placement is pretty even, especially seen as I was working with minimal fabric.

Now I just have to decided what to do with the shorts portion? Voodoo, ritual sacrifice? Answers on a postcard people! [I really do wish I had the courage to show you the pictures because MY GOD! Did I look like a sack of poop! That's the polite way of putting it, my mother uses slightly more vulgar wording for that expression, but I'm a lady, A lady with a crotch that engulfs fabric..........]

So from failure to success! I can't believe after the amount of sewing hours I put into this all I have to show for it is a cami top ! Aww well at least I love it!

Much Love

Frankie 

xxx

           

The Lesser Spotted Lilou Dress

So here's my latest make I cranked this out in one evening after Rikki had gone on his night shift, I'd already cut the pieces earlier so all I had to do was stitch them together, and watch episodes of "The Affair" which is confusing me because why would you sleep with some old guy when you have Pacey from Dawsons Creek as your husband? Bewildering to say the least.

The fabric came from my lovely pen friend [the more observant of you will notice the fabric from my last dress also came from lovely pen friend! She was kind enough to send me a lil parcel of fabric she wouldn't use and I immediately put all other ideas to one side to focus on them! What can I say I have a short attention span.] Anyway this cotton is printed with birds and swirls and lovely pen friend thinks it might herald from Singapore, I think it was hand printed using blocks because the pattern rep isn't exactly the same and you can see where it doesn't always line up. I really should have taken a picture of before I cut into it, but I'm impatient so I'll just describe it.

The green part you can see at the bottom of the dress ran down one selvedge, up from that was a row of creepy looking birds [I'll instagram those next chance I get as I don't have a picture.] And then up from that the plumes and to the top selvedge was their "plumes" I think that's the right word and you know feathery bits and they were all pretty and swirly. 

Naturally the print of the fabric dictated my pattern placement, I chose to have the green boarder at the hem of the skirt with the birds and then use the "plumes" for the bodice because I wouldn't need to pattern match the swirls.

Got to say I'm really glad I thought about it and didn't rush in because I could have really messed things up.

The dress pattern I used was naturally was Lilou from Tilly and the buttons. Which is my favourite dress pattern for displaying an interesting print. [also used here, here, here, here and here.]

However to keep things fresh I decided to alter the back bodice piece to give it a low back. At some point I'll write a quick thing about how I did it because it really is simple.  

I really love how it turned out with the pattern placement and the style of the dress, did I also mention that I added pockets? In an effort to make my clothes as wearable as possible I added pockets because I always need somewhere to keep my phone and chewing gum [I chew a lot of gum, its a bad habit but my breathe is always minty fresh.]

I like the safari vibe the dress has, I don't think I'd look out of place riding an elephant in this dress. Although is riding elephants cruel? Because people ride horses and I think they like it? Do elephants like it? I think I might have to do some research before I hop on to one.

The hems a good length, I could go shorter but then I'd loose some of the lovely boarder so I think it will stay as is, plus its more modest if I do end up on an elephant.

There's so many pictures of this because I love it so much, although I think it might need a belt of some sort to define the waist with it being such a large and busy print.

Naturally because of the low back I'm having to let the "girls" hang free, which doesn't actually bother me too much, probably because of the full bodice lining, its an extra layer of protection against the.....ahem.....cold.

It's not wonky I promise but it does look it in this picture!

So yeah, 

Yay for Lilou!

Yay for the girls!

Yay for pen friends

and Yay for elephants!!!!

much love 

Frankie 

xxx