Threadcount 1613 - My Xmas Dress - Fabric from Sewalicious

My advent calendar has reliably informed me that there are only 6 sleeps until Christmas! 

So I thought this would be a great time to show you the dress I've made for Christmas day!

First of all I'm a tricky customer for dressing on Christmas day. My anxiety skyrockets and that triggers my IBS and makes my tummy bloat and feel really uncomfortable.

So number 1. The dress has to be comfortable enough to wear for the majority of the day. 

2. I have to be able to wear it with regular underwear [IE. not spanx. Spanx is the devil]

3. There has to be enough room for me to eat my body weight in roasts potatoes, Yorkshire puds and piggies in blankets....and then there still needs to be enough room for half a tub of quality street. 

4. I must look and feel pretty darn good, and it must photograph well because those pesky camera phones are everywhere now days]

Its really hard to see the details because the dress is black and black doesn't photograph well. But to start with the fabric this is a Stretch viscose from sewalicious [they kindly sent it to me in exchange for a blog post I wrote for them.]

Its a fairly thick fabric with a flocked velvet diamond pattern on it. Its special enough for Christmas but not so special that I'll feel like a bauble on the tree. 

I lined it with a purple cotton that I had in my stash and I think originally came from my friend Jeanette - [Instagram Pin_n_tonic]

Pattern wise I used threadcount 1613 which I'm fairly sure someone gave me but I can't for the life of me remember who!!! [so sorry if its you, hit me up with a message so I can credit you!]

 

The pattern is printed on tissue paper and I cut a size 12. For this dress I chose to do the pencil skirt version rather than the full skirt. And I opted out of the sleeves and weird hip flaps. Because well hip flaps? Really? We want to add more volume to my hips? 

Construction wise I lined the bodice in cotton and I REALLY struggled with the instructions. Because of the wrap over top style I think I must have lined it and unpicked it about 6 times before I was happy. Next time I think I'll just follow my instincts and do the construction my way. 

I also struggled with working out which way round some of the pieces were meant to go and which pieces were which, especially with the shoulder yokes. I think this issue came about because the notches also line up with other notches which meant I got really confused. I think the pattern could do with some better markings so nothing gets confused.

I also had to add some extra gathers on the shoulder straps [you can see the ribbon I gathered it into on the picture above]. Basically when I tried it on, it looked really matronly and I nearly cried because it wasn't the Marilyn Monroesque look I was going for and I was worried I had wasted the beautiful fabric. I looked online and the neckline looks okay on other people but it was just too much on me. Rikki has since suggested that its because I have little shoulders. Anyway I added some gathers in which just opened up the neckline a bit and made it more flattering. I think I gathered about an inch or two? But it makes a huge difference.

Apart from the shoulders the rest of the fit wasn't too bad. I did shorten the skirt by about 4 inches and I had to take two inches out of the back seam. Now the dress fits really nicely without being uncomfortably tight. 

Because of the weight and thickness of the fabric I decided to use a metal zip rather than a plastic or invisible zip. I personally don't trust invisible zips on thick fabrics or places where there are lots of bulk on the seams [like the waist seam because I ended up having to bias binding it to make things look neat] And in my experience metal zips hardly ever break no matter how much you abuse them.

Style wise I think the gathered wrap over bodice is really flattering and I love how the skirt skims over my curves. I think this is because the skirt is made up of seven panels so you can really tweak the fit and contour it to your own body.

All in all I really love this dress and I can't wait to wear it! The fabric works perfectly with the pattern but I have no idea how this pattern was given the beginner rating? I mean this bodice was head scratchingly hard. That or I can't read and understand simple instructions? It could be that one...but I don't think it is? I personally would say this pattern is more suitable for a intermediate sewer who not afraid of their unpicker.

In other news! 

Every single present is wrapped.

School finishes today, so tomorrow I am going to have a big ole lie in and watch Disney movies under a blanket with my lil man! 

My cold still sucks, I think its reached into my sinuses BUT I have high hopes that a few days of rest will leave me feeling perky for Christmas!!! 

Much Love

Frankie 

[Disclaimer: Sewalicious sent me this fabric free of charge as a thank you for a post I wrote for their blog. They did not ask me to review it or link to it]  

Valentines Day, GBSB Wrap Dress

I'm not sure if this is a success or not. Part of me likes it and the other part of me thinks this isn't quite the right velvet. Its a bit thin and I;m not sure it has the weight that this wrap dress needs.

Anyway from the top! The pattern is the gbsb wrap dress from the second book. I'd already made it in a stretch poly knit and immediately afterwards I wanted to make one in velvet. 

This velvet was from abakhans and cost £8.40. I had originally wanted something in a dark teal or more of a burgandy colour but couldn't find anything so I picked this up instead. Its more of a raspberry colour than the pictures show. 

I sewed up most of the seams on my overlocker only using my regular machine to stitch the sleeve hems and to hem the outer edge of the dress.

I used a twin needle for all the hems and even managed to find two spools of thread the right colour. But my god was it a pain in the bum! The threads kept twisting and snapping and jumping into one needle it was more trouble than it was worth and I cursed myself for not using a simple zigzag.

I also Made one small change from the instructions, instead of leaving a gap in the side seam for the ties I simply made a button hole. It seems to be a lot more secure and looks a lot neater.

The only other thing that sucks about this dress is that I cut it out the wrong way so the pile of the fabric is the wrong way up. So basically if you want to stroke the velvet you have to stroke down to up instead of stroking down! 

All in all I'd say I'm about 80% happy with it, I think it probably looks a bit nicer than in the pictures but I definitely want to make another velvet one hopefully using a slightly richer velvet. The construction is good and I still love this style.

I'm wore it for valentines day, we didn't do anything particularly special just exchanged gifts in the morning and then I cooked us a tea later on. Its a darn sight better than last year though where we didn't even celebrate because we were saving for the wedding!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

Self drafted blue velvet circle skirt

I made this after drooling over a few different velvet skirts on pinterest. I mean what's more perfect than a velvet skirt in winter?

Now originally I was going to use the Clemence skirt pattern from love at first stitch but after the success of drafting my first circle skirt for my gingham dress, I thought why not ill just crack on and go patternless again. so I drafted my circle skirt based on my measurements again and made a simple waistband by measuring my waist and adding a seam allowance.   

Due to either the stretch of the of the circle skirt or a miscalculation the top of my skirt piece was slightly too big so I had to gather it but it still looks awesome. Also in the spirit of trying new things [ I know I've been very adventurous recently I hope I'm not having a mid life crisis] I put in my first ever lapped zip........Yay? And I've got to say I'm not a lover of the lapped zip, its just not that great to be honest saying that I will be giving it another go but this time I'm going to use a cotton in case it was the thickness of the velvet that's putting me off.

Its a really full skirt but I think its really flattering and I feel kind of awesome in it, like one of those girls who looks all adorable and chic in the winter instead of like a walking poof ball of wool and padding. 

It's got great twirlability too! 

So as a quick project that took me about two hours to make from cutting out to sewing up I'm very pleased, and it was nice to be able to use some more of the velvet I was given.

Now what do we think if the length? I didn't want anything too short but I also didn't want to look like a nun? I think its pretty spot on.

Eurgh I've just realised how rough I look in these photographs, I woke up this morning with the most dreadful stomach cramps and I actually had to get out of bed to heat up my wheat bag, funnily enough it reminded me of before I had lil knitwit when I lived at my mums and I used to wake up with stomach cramps and run a bath a three in the morning and then watch Gavin and Stacey! and naturally my running the bath would wake up my mum so she'd make us hot tea with a dot of brandy [well a couple of dots]

Well now i can't have the brandy because I have a little boy to care for!

Much Love

Frankie

xxx 

Blue velvet GBSB Shift dress

After the success of my first GBSB Shift dress I decided to make another and finally cut into my blue velvet!

Okay so my pictures came out in a weird order and I'm far to lazy to fix it, so here's the back I used a shorter zip than the pattern called for so its half zip and half cool button feature. I think it looks cute I made my loops using a needle and thread technique that's also used on the basic shell top. The only down side is you can see my bra but it doesn't bother me a huge amount . Although I did remove it for the purpose of this post.

I still like the shape and I think the hem length on this is good, i could go a little shorter but I'm not a huge fan of showing my pants anymore.

I faced the neckline using scraps from my Halloween dress which means the inside has a secret creepy agenda which is awesome in so many ways! i also stitched the facings to the seams where i could to stop them flicking up. usually i just top stitch and be done with it but i wanted a really RTW finish.

Here's the back again, the buttons are vintage and either came from my mum via a charity shop or my neighbour? I'm not sure but i like the vintage feel they give to the garment.

Fabric wise i used some of my blue velvet, it was a good project to see how the fabric works, i learnt that it sheds like a mother and frays on the edges and shifts faster than usian bolt. i think its something to do with the nap of the fabric because it only did it on certain angles, in fact the princess seams were easier to do than the back seam. But i used my new walking foot and although its really loud it seemed to help with the shifting problem [I'm now really looking forward to using it for quilting!]

Incidentally for those who haven't gathered this is the dress i got stuck in in this post.

All in all I'm very pleased with how its turned out, It fits well and i find it very flattering. And I like that the skirt isn't overall fitted the slight Aline makes it more comfotable.

I actually wore this on Thursday for taking lil knitwit to nursery and then going to swimming and MacDonald's as a special treat. Lil knitwit has been very well behaved this week so we thought he deserved some spoiling.

In other news Lil knitwit is now the very proud owner of his own fish tank as a reward for doing so well with his toilet training. would you belive that he now goes for his nap without a pull up on? and he gets a sticker if he wakes up dry! or trys a new food! basically stickers are like crack in our house!

Annnnnnnd today we adopted a hamster, Sandy is a small syrian hamster who hadn't been sold so had been put up for adoption and surprisingly enough it wasn't me who fell In love with her it was mr knitwit!

Soft git

Much love

Frankie

P.s yes this does now bring our animal count to 

1 hamster

1 rabbit

tropical fish

2 guinea pigs

It's like Christmas but more velvety

I recently came into possession of some velvet. A roll of velvet to be precise. Yes a roll like they have in fabric shops. It was given to me by one of my mums belly dance friends. All of whom are very lovely and always on the lookout for bits and pieces I might find useful. 

But what on earth can I do with it all? How will I store it? How will I know how much there is? 

My first instinct for storing it was to cut it into manageable lengths and fold it away, however my nanny who's visiting said this might cause the velvet to get gold lines and crease and ruin it. So instead I've tucked it behind the sofa with my projector screen. 

With regard to how much there is, I have no idea, I know how to work out the circumference of a circle but not of a spiral? I'm not sure they covered that in gcse maths. Or if they did I wasn't listening! Which means I'll have to play it fast and loose! I'll have to enjoy the velvet whilst I can and be satisfied that I've enjoyed myself when the end comes. Sort of like eating chocolate blindfolded.

But know what to make? How much velvet can one person cram into their wardrobe? Well if your me and love velvet! LOTS! 

So naturally I've started a velvet Pinterest board! Here's a few of my favourite things: 

Okay so it's ambitious, and I've got no idea how to work the whole buses thing. But I've wanted a velvet corset since my sister came home with one over ten years ago. (My sister possibly loves velvet more than me) I adored that corset, in fact it's just one in a long list of things I wanted to steal from my sisters wardrobe  over the years, now I'm not sure I could do something this complicated but I think the gbsb fashion with fabric pattern might serve as a good starting point for corset based projects. 

A velvet suit, mick jagger was my inspiration for this, however I think I might go for a straighter trouser rather than a flare. I used to love flares when I was about 9/10 in fact I had a pair of huge flares and I'm still not sure how I didn't fall over in them. So I think I've had my fill of flares, plus I think a straighter leg will stop it from looking outdated.

Ive looked into ways to alter the velvet so I don't get bored , I'm tempted to try bleaching (on a scrap first) and see if I can create a galaxy style dress, complete with little bead "stars" and I'm definitely going to try embossing, apparently you need something you can heat like a rubber stamp or a metal stamp. My only stamp is an owl so I've been on the lookout for interesting metal objects that might be usable, so far I'm found a potato masher......... 

I think this might be the project I start with. The clemence pattern from Tilly and the buttons looks like a good fit for this and I think it will be nice and snuggly for winter. 

Velvet minidress (minus sparkles) I'm pretty sure I wore a dress similar to this for the millennium, it was from Tammy girl , in fact all my "party clothes" were! I loved Tammy girl! I wonder if it's still going? Anyway the other reason I love it is because I'm pretty sure buffy the vampire slayer had a velvet minidress and she's been my idol for years! She's just so 90's ! Anyway I'm going to use the gbsb book 2's shift dress pattern. I just made a summer version so I know it fits and a more winter appropriate version would be cool. 

And that's all my ideas for now! 

What would you make with a bolt of velvet? 

Much love

Frankie

Xxx

Not a saggy bottom in sight!

A long time ago I used to go belly dancing and I had the most beautiful pair of velvet trousers to wear for it, baggy and bohemian! However I don't have much call for bohemian trousers now, so they found themselves I the recycling pile!

Until I had a flick through my Great British Sewing Bee book and thought to myself,

Leggings could work, why throw them away when I could just refashion myself a new pair of snazzy leggings ?

So I got a cracking!

I'm so sorry for these first two photos I took them on my phone!

Here's how they started! They had an elasticated waistband with belt loops which fit beautifully so I thought I'd keep the elastic and loops. Then I measured my ankle, which was roughly half the width of the bottom of each leg and marked it with a pin. and them quite simply drew a line from the middle of each bottom leg to the top edge of the waistband, using a plank of wood long ruler.

And boom! Velvet leggings! They do fit really nicely all the way down! (next time I have a warm body at my disposal I'll get them to take a full length picture!)

The only problem I have now is how in hells name do I wear them? They are a dark wine colour, but I was thinking of using them for the nursery run so I don't want them to look to dressy which is hard with velvet!

I kind of like them with my Kimono jacket, but it does make me look very bohemian!

Of course I had to make sure they would pass muster for May and Patrick!

Not a saggy bottom in sight! Although if Patrick wants to come round and check personally I won't mind at all!

Hurrah for refashioning!

Much Love

Frankie!

XXX