Lace Peplum/Dress

It's so hot, mummy !!

We went to Paris for a wedding this August. One of the themes of the wedding was to wear something purple and since I was blessed (given) this fabric earlier in the year, i decided to use it for myself and the girls. Also made a trouser with waistcoat for the boy but that is not featured here.

By the way temperatures that weekend reached up to (38°C = 100.4°F). It was sooo hot. So the frowns in the pictures are not real frowns :) but due to the sun.

Top bodice and peplum of my dress is self drafted. :)  yes, I am planning to eventually move away from store bought patterns because they are so limiting in designs and size variations.

Peplum was drafted by using the idea of a simple circle skirt. Total length was just about 11" long, width was my waist size.

Back View.

Don't have a picture for my back view but its pretty much similar to front view, peplum goes all the way around.

Used 'pinks' i.e bows, shoe to compliment their purple dresses.

Why the ribbon running down the centre front of the girls you say? Well i realised after cutting the top pattern that it was slightly bigger than i wanted, so i sewed about 1/4th inch seam allowance right sides together and ended up with a line down the centre which i covered with the ribbon. In fashion a mistake normally leads to another fashion invention. lol. it turned out OK i guess. 

Notice the purple trim detail on the peplum?

While we wait for the coach to pick us from the registry to the wedding reception venue...

Probably wanted a drink at that time.

That's a picture of myself and one of the girls. We mostly survived on drinks because of the heat.

The wedding itself was beautiful and fully romantic if I must say. The bride and groom were both adorable.

Until next time, have a wonderful day, week, month and please leave a message so I will know you were here.

Regards.

Purple floral Simplicity 2404

I have got serious history with this simplicity 2404 pattern. I bought it three times!!! Yes you heard read right. First time it got lost in the post, second time it got lost in the post. As if I knew there was something about this pattern and me, I bought it the third time. Phew.. it got delivered to me.

I just love this pattern. Truly an amazing fit. (well in my opinion.)
Navy blue lace trim added at the empire waistline as a little design detail.

Skirt in pattern was for a straight skirt, I used an 'A' skirt because I don't like my dresses clinging to me at waist level cos I still have a bit of a 'stomach' :)

Back view

There you have it, my simplicity 2404. Glad I finally got it. Planning another version in red and white but that might not get on the priority list until next year. lol.

At the rate I make clothes, I will soon need a charity to pass dresses to because of the quantity we all have combined. lol.

Well its all in the name of practising to perfect my skills!! :)

Easy Red Birthday dress.

Its was one week to my birthday and I realized I didn't have anything to wear!!!

well I mean, nothing new. lol. ok, I then decided to make something, simple, quick but of course nice!!!

I used butterick 5463, the long sleeve orange version. this I made longer to turn it into a dress.

I must say it was simple quick (under 2hrs for sewing)

Don't you just love the lace detail.

In case you think I did the lace inserts, no. The lace detail was part of the fabric border print.

One thing that actually took time was cuting out the fabric. Although it was just two pieces, one front one back, then the sleeves and facings for the neck. I adjusted the pattern neck, (original neck was too wide for me) making sure the front and back lace part lined up took some time.

My idea of 'simple but nice'

Overall I am happy with my 'easy' birthday dress. Got a lot of compliments too.

Thanks for visiting.

Come back soon.

Green and Gold Dress

Saw this fabric in the shops and fell in love with it. Seems a bit dull so I decided to mix it up with some gold. Mixing up fabric is well up my street as you will notice soon. :-) The fabric does fray a bit (as in a lot) so I've had to overlock every bit of the inside.

 Can the see the gold 'infuse' on the sleeve? Copied the idea from a vogue pattern, would have added pictures but can't seem to find pattern image on their site anymore. The sun is making the fabric look faded, it does look better in real life.

Newlook pattern 6824 used. Bit of a mix and match of the princess seam, gathered sleeve detail and sash.

Back pleat detail.

Notice the 'look' of the back? That was also from another vogue pattern which has pleats at the skirt back edgestitched for about 5" in length only. This design is not so obvious from a distance due to the fabric pattern.

Don't ask me why i am wearing boots on a seemingly sunny day. lol

When I checked the weather forecast before leaving home it was supposed to be a cold day. As the day wore on, the sun came out and it got warmer. How embarrassing to be in such hot boots. lol


 Overall I am very happy with this dress, it took two days and was very uneventful. (isn't that what we always want.) I.e things went smoothly just as predicted. Well except for one little detail. I wanted full long sleeves with this dress, assumed pattern piece was, joined sleeves to bodice only to find out it was 3/4 in length, ha aha, but it still looked good.

Until the next inspiration, the next creation...
Adios.

The white & red with black pleats dress

My sister got this 'three in one' fabric that flowed from the white to the red print to the black but shockingly this fabric design was off grain so to maintain this flow i had to cut and then join them differently that is how i came to include this Julia inspired pleats into the dress.

This is one of the pictures from Julia's blog,

This dress was made using buttterick's see and sew category, using the v neck version but with a straight skirt.
it turned out OK for my sister as you can see but even though we are very close size wise it didn't fit me at all. Luckily I hadn't cut out my own dress. ha ha

This is how it all comes together with a jacket.

Am working on some easy fixes, will let you know when it all comes together and if it was truly 'easy'
This is all for now, until another dress is complete, Adios.

This for coming, come back soon :)

Vintage Stylish

This dress is my version of Butterick 5603. I love the upper body fit and tend to go for fitted empire bodice and free skirt due to my shape.

Could say it fits like a glove.

 I couldn't just understand the facing that was explained in the pattern. lol (still coming to grips with facings) so I used bias binding and a lace trim for the neck.

Butterick pattern used

Don't think i could get away with such slim waist showed in the pattern.

So I cut a big A-line skirt full length to ankle making the upper part of skirt 8" more than 1 needed and made 8 darts, four in front and four at the back.

Talking about the back it gaped a bit at the 'v' so I just pulled the shoulder seam at the back in about 1/2 inch.

Don't mind the crease, dress had been worn all day.

There you have it. simple, vintage but stylish.

Thanks for coming, until the next posting, Adios.