The Purple Jackie O Dress

I feel like every time I re read the pink suit I end up making something very Jackie O inspired! And its one of my favourite books so I re read it a lot [Rikki thinks this is bizarre by the way! He says why would you re read something you've already read because you know how it ends? In fact he doesn't even re watch films unless they happen to be on and theirs nothing else on!]  So yeah that's where the idea for this dress came from and it paired nicely with me actually needing some sensible grown up clothes in my wardrobe as well as novelty print dresses!

Isn't that purple bright? I literally don't think I have ever made anything this bright in a plain colour before! The fabric was from the lady at the carboot and well I'm not 100% what it is? Its definitely a type of knit but it has no stretch. Its not a woven, which I could tell from the fabric structure. It has a goods amount of "bounce" and it was very difficult to press in fact the whole thing had to be done on the lowest setting under a pressing cloth [LOL I don't have a pressing cloth I just use a clean hankie!] 

It also hated my machine, It kept getting jammed and I had to use my walking foot in the end!  

I only had about a metre and a half of fabric which is why I did the pencil skirt option rather than my favourite box pleat version.

The pattern is..... Do I even need to say it or have we seen it so many times its second nature? The whole thing is from the second GBSB book, But I added a waistband because the pattern is far more empire than it looks on the model [I'm still not sure how they managed this? The sample picture and the actual pattern are completely different!]

I've pretty much perfected the bodice on this now, but back in the day before I tweaked it I cut a size 12 and my measurements are 36" - 27" - 38". 

The waistband is about 3 inches fit and I just cut it to the same length as my bodice. 

The zip is a bit jacked up. I'm not sure if It needs an iron or if it just needs ripping out and the zip seam interfacing to give it more structure? Its just come through the wash so I think I'll try a good press first. The zip itself came out a £1 mixed bag from abakhans. It has a little "p" at the top which is weird? I;m not sure where it's from? I did ask Rikki to cut off the middle bit and make it an "f" but he said something about tools and structures and it not being possible so I guess the "p" will have to stand for "princess"!.

The waistband is lined and the neck and arms are faced. I line the waistband by cutting two waistbands and then constructing the dress normally including inserting the zip. Then I take the second waistband, turn down a 1.5cm seam allowance and press, then pink on top of the actual waistband and hand stitch into place all the way around. There is probably a better way of doing it but that's how I do it! 

Its not too bad I suppose, Its just a bit bubbly above my bum area.

Here's a cheeky shot of my label inside, I put it on the inside waistband which makes it difficult to show people but does mean it won't flip out. You can also see the slip stitched waistband lining. The only other finishing I did was pinking the princess seams which I always do because I think it makes the curve sit nicer. 

I also pinked the facings, I always have to cut them down loads! I'm not sure why the pattern has them drafted so wide? Maybe your suppose to do a double turned hem on them? But who has time for that?

All in all I kind of like it? Its a bit of a variation away from my usual style, although to be honest I'm not 100% what my style is? Sometimes I'm punky sometimes I'm prissy! And at thew ripe of age of 24 I am wondering if I should have an actual style? But then I think to myself the best part of getting dressed every day is DRESSING UP! So I'll probably just keep wearing a crazy mix of clothes until I;m sat in my nursing home teaching my grandchildren all the good curse words. Oh yes I plan on being that kind of Grandma!  

In other news! 

- I've still not been sewing much what with both Rikki and lil man being off but I have nearly finished my new winter scarf so hopefully I'll be blogging that soon. 

- And I have an idea for a crochet jumper that I am itching to get started on! 

- We've also been talking about when we might be able to next go camping, mainly were trying to work out if there is anything else we need [a chair for lil man and some wellies for me!] And how we can save room in the car i.e convince Marcus he doesn't need to take all TEN of his bedtime teddies and pack the contents of the picnic basket into another box! I also have plans to sew a lil windbreak for our stove, just something to keep the wind away from the flame and to keep lil man away from it!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

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Red Waffle Dress - FC The Fabric Studio

Hey guys! Lets take a moment to appreciate the 30 seconds of sunshine we had yesterday! Today however it was gone, and I am still waiting for nice weather because it makes taking blog pictures 1000% easier. 

Anyway I'm here today with possibly my favourite dress that I've ever made thus far. This dress was a serious labour of love and I made sure to try and do everything to the best of my ability.

So lets start from the top! The fabric is from FC FabricStudio who were kind enough to get in touch with me a while ago and ask if I wanted some fabric to blog about. And well Momma didn't raise no fool so naturally I said yes! 

I sent a list of fabric I liked from the website and was sent this awesome red polyester waffle and another red floral jersey. Now because they were both red I pre washed them together with a colour catcher [FYI I now do all of my washing with a colour catcher just because it saves so much heartache]. Now the colour catcher came out red but I'm not sure which fabric ran and neither looked different coming out of the wash. So no harm no foul just something to be aware of. 

The websites easy to navigate and the washing instruction for each fabric are really clear which I love. 

They have just under 300 fabrics on the website and they start from £2.00 and go up to £14.00 which is hardly bank breaking now is it? The other thing I love is that all of the fabrics have a great RTW sort of vibe to them. There's no novelty stuff which is great if you want to have a high street sort of look.

Pattern wise I wanted a really classic dress something that wouldn't look out of place in a restaurant but that I could dress down for assemblies at Lil mans school. Naturally I went for the Princess seam bodice from the second GBSB book because I've altered it to fit me perfectly. I added a waistband and spent a good hour umming and ahhing between having a full circle skirt and a box pleat one. In the end the box pleat won because I knew the fabric would hold the shape beautifully. The box pleat skirt is also from the second GBSB book.   

I made sure to press all of my seams really carefully and I under stitched my facings. Normally I line all of my bodices but because the fabric is thicker than a cotton I thought a lined bodice might be a tad warm and well ummm sweaty..... That said I did line the waistband so the seams from the skirt and the bodice would be tidied away. I just trimmed the seam allowances on the rest because the fabric doesn't fray.

The zip is recycled from an old hoody [I really love an exposed metal zip!] and hurrah it went in first time.

Typically I don't make dresses in plain fabrics but I think the waffle texture adds a good amount of interest to something that could end up being quite dull.

So I;m marking this a GRAND success! I love the look of the dress and I love how RTW it seems! And the colour guys! Its just so beautiful I feel like Chris De Burgh should be following me around singing lady in red! 

And I highly recommend the website for finding beautiful prints that aren't to "out there" I've got my eye on this one and this one next!

I have decided what to do with the floral jersey but the pattern needs printing off so I need to wait until Rikki is out of the house so he's not all like "WHY ARE THEIR 40 PAGES COMING OUT OF THE PRINTER!!! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW MUCH INK COSTS!" Its much easier we both just pretend that our printer spontaneously runs out of paper and ink.......

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Disclaimer - Whilst this fabric was sent to me free of charge are waffle loving goodness is my own! 

Vintage Style Party Dress!

Okay So its not just a dress, but that's certainly a big part of it so lets break it down!

Shoes : Schuh AGES ago, one of my favourite pairs and still fabulous! £45 , but we are talking at least 6/7 years old.

Belt : Primark, like £4? Hardly worn or used, I just brought it cos its pwetty!

Underskirt: Handmade! My version of a 1950's style petticoat. I cut three full circle skirts {based on my measurements} from the organza and stitched them all together side by side, then added a waistband and threaded elastic through. Its very comfortable and gives a good amount of volume, Its not a traditional petticoat but its nice and the organza is a lot softer than some of the nettings that are used. And it falls really nicely! The organza is an awesome wine colour and was given to me by a lady from my mums belly dance class, I think there was about 3 maybe 4 metres? Instead of hemming it I finished the edge with a straight stitch and then pinked the edge.

The dress! Handmade! The bodice is from the second GBSB book and I have also used it here, here, here, here, here and here {I have got my moneys worth from that book!}. The bodice is a princess seam bodice so I skipped the pattern matching and the adjustments were easy, not that I did any because they were transferred to the paper copy ages ago!. The skirt is a full circle skirt based on my measurements, by accident the skirt for the dress is shorter than the petticoat which I think looks pretty cool. 

The fabric came from my lovely pen friend, I think she has the same fabric in the blue colour way! Its sort of a floaty type of fabric it presses nicely and it feels silky? I'm crap at this name the fabric game aren't I! I tend to just go by eye its why I don't shop on-line very often!

I just did a central zip and its a lil jacked up, its not so bad that it needs ripping out but its not good in any sense. At the time of doing the zip I'd just tried on the dress and was not a happy bunny. Basically I'd forgotten that the bodice is sat super high like almost an empire waist and that I usually add a waistband. Anyway an empire waist was not the look I wanted whatsoever. So I threw a wobbler and decided to settle for finished rather than perfect. As it goes I'm wearing it with a waspie style belt so it doesn't really matter!

Other than that I think the fit of the bodice is pretty bang on, well at least in my humble opinion.

I top stitched the arm holes and the neck line and I fully lined the bodice. The GBSB book doesn't call for lining so I just used my noggin and cut out some lining fabric [from stash] and used the same method as for the Lilou bodice from Love at First Stitch.

I did quite a lot of hand finishing as well, I made a loop and button closure at the top of the zip and I hemmed the skirt by hand. The hand sewing of the hem took ages, I mean ages! There's a lot of fabric in a circle skirt and those curves are tricky!! I got a nice finish in the end though because I managed to keep my stitches pretty small and a good iron hides a multitude of sins! 

Here's a few things I would have done differently:

- Lengthen the bodice by about two inches so its less of an empire line and more waisted.

- Finish the edge of the petticoat with a rolled hem, I really need to woman up and learn how to do this.

- Attach elastic to petticoat by stitching it on rather than using the channel method.

- Maybe make a belt from the same organza that I used for the petticoat so it matches, I did have one planned but I'm fairly lazy and remembered that I had the butterfly one.

- Lower the neckline by bout half an inch maybe an inch.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with this. Its VERY vintage looking though and I don't usually go for the whole looking completely vintage thing but I think for a party or special occasion it might be nice! I wore it for about and hour after taking these pictures, I'm sure the neighbours think I'm very classy eating soup in a party dress! That or they think I've finally lost it.

Naturally it also works without the petticoat and belt, I think this is where the issues with the waistline show themselves.  

From this angle I actually risk looking a bit preggers, Actually the high waistline might work if you are...ya know...up the spout. [I love all the different terms for pregnancy but that might be my favourite, closely followed by "harbouring a parasite"]

The length is good here though and I guess I can still wear it with the belt if I want, or I can go without if I'm going on public transport and want to guarantee myself a seat.

I still think the print is awesome whichever way the dress is styled, I think its because its a very loud print and with an awesome colour palette. It works nicely in a vintage context and as a little modern dress too. I guess what they say is true what goes around in fashion comes around.

All in all a grand success! Now I just need a fancy occasion the wear it too!

So if someone could throw a party that would be awesome!?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Lace and Gingham Dress

This is a new make! Well I say new, I made it ages ago but it took me ages to get round to photographing it. Like my background? Santa's already started putting presents in our spare room so I've had to borrow little Knitwits wall to take these! Thomas the tank engine is super awesome by the way!

It's the princess seam bodice from the second Great British Sewing Bee book. Its used for two of the projects the shift dress and the full skirted dress. Anyway I had already traced the bodice for my shift dresses but I really liked the full skirted look. So I used that as my inspiration. But because I'm lazy I couldn't be bother to trace off the skirt pieces so I drafted a full circle skirt all by myself! LIKE A BOSS!

As I've said I was only using their image as inspiration so I left of the sleeves (well kind of sleeves more like sleeve cap things) and added a lace waistband. The lace waistband came about because I have a ready to wear dress that has a lace waist band and Mr Knitwit commented that he thought it was cute..... And he says I never listen to him! Oddly enough I didn't need to alter the bodice in any way to accommodate the waistband. I think its because the bodice is drafted to be quite high anyway [Much higher than how it looks on the model in the book]

The fabric was sent to me by a lovely lady who reads my blog. And I really love it! I don't really own too many check items but this dress is making want to expand my horizons! Even if it was a beast to try and match! 

Here's my self drafted skirt , well I say drafted I just measured myself and then cut into the fabric! The skirt is bias but the lace band and the chequered band art the bottom are cut on the grain. It was actually really easy to apply and because the bottom band is cut on grain and is straight it made hemming the skirt so easy! Even if there was bloody loads of it!

Lace application wise I just sewed it on and then top stitched the seam allowance towards the chequered fabric so you couldn't see it through the lace.

I feel pretty fabulous in it to be honest, I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I love the skirt and the lace and the kind of texas/wizard of oz feel it has! I'm also please that I didn't just play safe and make another Lilou. However I am wondering if I should alter my pattern pieces to make the neckline a bit lower. Not like full playboy low but maybe a little more cleavage? 

Here's the pattern matching, The side seam is like OMG! LOOK AT THAT ! But the boob seam is not quite as awesome, which makes me kind of sad but not so sad that I wont ever wear it again. Some of the across stripes match but the up ones are all over the place. I'm not sure if its me that's screwed up or if its just because its a princess seam?

All in all I'm calling this a resounding success! And I think I might have fallen in love with circle skirts! Which is huge! because I am such a gathered skirt kind of girl! But boy is the full circle flattering! It just skims! and I'm really please with the fit of the bodice as well.

I wonder if a half circle skirt does the same?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx