Lilou Tie Shoulder Dress Hack

I like Pina Coladas and getting drunk in the rain. Actually I hate cocktails and well I live in England so I have been drunk in the rain, In fact its probably a statistical fact that I've been drunk in the rain more times than drunk in sun.

Anyway ! This dress! I mean THIS DRESS! Sometimes you can have an awesome pattern and awesome fabric and its still a bit lacking but not this time! I love this dress, Rikki likes this dress, I think I might want to be buried on this dress [well this one or my wax cotton one]

I mean its a Hawaiian print, so lets just start with that. I don't normally do colour but as soon as I saw this on the craft cotton company website I fell in love. Suddenly I had visions of myself strutting down a sunny street with the beach boys playing in the background.

Its like someone took the whole of summer and wove it into a print! Anyway its a 100% cotton, didn't shrink in the wash, ironed beautifully and no colours ran at all! And it was a dream to sew with and cut out, it doesn't shift and yo can finger press a lot of your seams! I didn't bother pattern matching but I did cut all my pieces the same way up.

In fact my only fault with this dress is that the zip is about 0.5cm out, but I've added a big button and it doesn't really bother me to be honest! At least it doesn't bother me enough to unpick everything and start again! 

So lets get to the nitty gritty! the top is the lilou bodice from love at first stitch by tilly and the buttons. But I hacked the bodice so I could keep with the 60's beach boys theme and have tie shoulders! 

It really was a simple hack and I think it looks awesome!

First I traced a copy of my front and back Lilou bodices.

Then using my ruler I just extended the strap by about 4/5 inches and rounded it off. I also curved in the edges where the original strap ended to reduce bulk. [sorry for the rubbish pictures they were taken on my phone]

Then cut of your new pattern piece!

Construction is pretty much the same as in the book, you stay stitch the neckline, but when it asks you to join the front bodice and the back bodices at the shoulders you just skip that part! Then you attach the front bodice to the front bodice lining right sides together and stitch all the way from one armscye up the strap around the round strap end through to the neckline and up the other strap and to the armscye again!

Then you do the same with the left back bodice and the right.

Then you just turn all the pieces through [after your clipped the edges] and then you can follow the instructions again for joining them all p at the side seams and adding the skirt and zip.

Here's me demonstrating the toe of the shoulders with the creepiest look on my face ever.

In hindsight next time I would only extend the straps by 3 inches instead of the 4/5 I used because I think mine are a touch long. But you live you learn! And it think it looks really cute and summery! Although you do have to line your bodice to have these straps so I'd recommend picking light fabrics.

The skirt is from the 2nd Great British Sewing Bee book. Its the box pleat skirt again, however I altered it to have a centre back seam and I omitted the waistband. The skirt was actually a touch too long for the bodice so I used a 2cm seam allowance on the skirt side seams instead of a 1.5cm one. Its definitely worth basting it in before you have to do lots of unpicking! or even worse MATHS! 

I think this might be my favourite Lilou dress hack so far! 

In other news! 

I've started a You tube channel!

So if you had a burning desire to see my actual face talking about sewing then all of your dreams have come true!

But in all seriousness its something I've wanted to do for a really long time and I'm glad I took the plunge! I do have to give a HUGE thank you to my lovely brother in law Keith though, because he has been patiently watching my failed video attempts and providing feedback since about March!

So yeah you pop over there and actually watch me talk about sewing! I can guarantee its far more awkward than any pictures I've ever posted on here!

And there's a cheeky video about this dress as well!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx

Summery dress!

This dress is in no way ground breaking, In fact I;d say it borders on dull but I like it and its practical for the summer.

I used the cami top from the third GBSB as my starting point, but I rounded the neckline, omitted the frill and created a dress shape by flaring and lengthening the side seams. [I drafted it all on a large sheet of paper first, and I left in the bust darts]

It fits pretty nicely, like a floatly summer dress should, nice and cool but with some coverage. The fabric was sent to me by my pen friend and although its not my style I love it in this dress. Rikki however is not convinced , he likes the style of the dress but says the fabric reminds him of the overalls children's ward nurses wear. I thought nurses were every man's fantasy so it should still be a winner right? 

I used about a metre of fabric for the dress and a scrap of poly silk for the facings. I'm wondering if I should have lined the whole dress though as its a bit see through. Its only a fraction but I think some perverts people would notice. Here I'm wearing it with a white vest top and skirt slip, which make me think I need to invest/make a white full slip. Preferably in cotton so the dress stays nice and cool.  The seams or French seamed and the hem is finished with a small hem, and the facing is top stitched down. 

All in all I like it, its part of my efforts to make a capsule holiday wardrobe, I have some fabric for a coordinating kimono that should hopefully keep my shoulders covered if we end up somewhere hot. Its floaty and girly but also really easy to wear and style just throw on a belt and your good to go.  

And it works with my denim jacket as well so I can see it being used for the nursery run here as well. Provided I sort out the slip situation. I might just get some cheap white cotton and attach it to the bottom of the facing as a quick fix. My hair is crazy in these pictures, we decided to have family haircut day with the lads going to the barbers whilst I went the hairdressers! But none of the hairdressers in town were taking walk ins and most were closed, so now I have to wait . [insert sad face] 

Here it is without the belt, Kind of looks like a nightie right?

Its a good length too! Can't be standing these summer dresses that expose half your backside!

Evenm if mine is "peachy" somebody else's words not mine! 

So yay! I think I have my sewjo back! WOOP WOOP!

And I have another metre of this fabric to play with!

maybe a blouse?

or a wrap skirt of sorts?

Much Love

Frankie

xxx