Winter Lace Dress - Laurel by Colette Patterns

So I'm another year older now. When did that happen?!! I remember I couldn't WAIT to turn 18; boy did that backfire ... now I break into sobs of gratitude if by some fluke I get asked for ID.

I like to claim the whole month of May as my birthday. Sorry, not sorry.

Me: 'Husband dearest, can I eat the last piece of pizza'

Husband: 'You've had every other piece!'

Me: 'But it's my birthday MONTH'

*Sound of husband banging head against the wall*

I also half seriously think that all this Me-Made-May-Mania going around is in my birthday honour.

Awkward. But hey, look! I made a dress!

The Pattern

It's the Laurel by Colette Patterns in a straight size 10. A great easy pattern to whip up, with lots of different variations. A great wardrobe filler, a flattering cut and a great first pattern for beginners.

Fabric

Lace from The Fabric Store and underlined with a cotton poplin. The lace is gorgeous and I normally love sewing with lace, but this one was an a-hole to sew with. It was a thin, super stretchy cheap lace that I purchased because, hey, I love lace and it was pretty. But I should have known better. It took so much extra time cutting this maddening fabric because each piece kept stretching out like pizza dough, and not in a good way. Great. Now I'm hungry.

Alterations

Amazingly, I didn't have to make any changes to the structure of the dress, I just sewed it up in a straight size. The changes I made were just in the finish of the dress.

I underlined the dress as per the instructions,  but made the underlining hem slightly shorter than the lace hem so that I could feature the scalloped edge. I cut into the lace fabric to create a scalloped edge, as the fabric didn't come with a scalloped edge. I featured it on both the skirt and the sleeve hem.

I annoyingly didn't buy enough of the lace fabric (another reason I wanted to punch the lace in the face) and so had to either lose the sleeves or cut the dress shorter. Wah! After scooping my heart off the ground, I decided to sacrifice the hem length which made the dress pretty teeny tiny. Perfect with leggings as a sort of long top, but not so appropriate with out.

Pattern matching and underlining

I took extra time carefully cutting out the lace so that the pattern on the lace matched down the centre front and back of the dress and the sleeves. I also made sure that the scalloped edge matched around the entire width of the hem. 

It's so worth the extra effort and makes the dress look cleaner. The simple shape of this dress really allows for perfect lace matching as the lace pattern doesn't get lost in a gazillion seam lines.

The pattern comes with great underlining instructions. Underlining is great for laces, sheer and light weight fabrics. You can also check out my own underlining tutorial here.

My thoughts

I love the classic 60's silhouette of this shift dress. You all know I'm a little bit crazy for Mad Men Fashion, so there was never any indecision over whether I would make this dress. Speaking of Mad Men, did you see how amazing all the dresses were in the Mad Men Challenge? Amaze-balls!

Even though this particular lace fabric was a menace to sew with, I'm really happy with the end result. The colour and the drape are really nice, and it's a bright happy shade to cheer up my recently dusted off winter wardrobe. As you can see in the pictures, when it gets dark and gloomy outside I rebel with colour.

Styling

For those of you who are wondering how I did my hair, I used this tutorial from my pinterest to get the effect.

The necklace is a handmade, hand painted wooden piece that I purchased from the Sew Little Time shop on Etsy. I'm a little bit in love with this store at the moment. Who wants to buy me something? It is my birthday MONTH *cough* 

I've seen so many amazing Laurel dresses around lately. It amazes me how you can have one pattern, but with different fabric and a different seamstress you can end up with a completely different looking dress. It tickles my creative fancy.

So what do you think? Have you made this pattern? Are you going to give it a go? Is it your birthday month too? (It can't be, it's MINE ... just kidding-ish)

In all seriousness though, I love birthdays and I'm proud to be getting older. It means that I'm still alive. With each extra candle, each extra wrinkle, each extra grey hair we are given the opportunity to make more dresses. How lucky we are. 

Mad Men Challenge 2 - THE BIG REVEAL!!

Ladies and gentleman, the results of the Mad Men Challenge are here and I am overwhelmed with the number of entrants and the quality of all the creations submitted. You guys look so amazing it hurts my head!

Now let the drooling begin!!

Click on the buttons below to see all your inspired creations for each character:

Is your outfit missing? Please email me at   julia[at]juliabobbin[dot]com   if your outfit is not showing!

Some fun facts:

122 Outfits

Joan with 32% , Betty with 26% and Megan with 13%

Most inspired garment: This beautiful Betty dress was made 5 times

GIVEAWAYS

Congratulations to the following entrants who were randomly selected using www.random.org and have won the following prize:

Rachel from Layer Stitch Repeat has won a $25 gift voucher to buy stunning vintage patterns from Patterns From the Past www.oldpatterns.com

Rachel from House of Pinheiro has won this beautiful vintage brooch below from the vintage Ruemiraldi store

Alimcfadian from The key to sudden madness has won this beautiful vintage brooch below from the vintage Ruemiraldi store

Sew Lonnie from Sew Lonnie has won this awesome Butterick pattern #5603 curtesy of the very lovely Majella from NSW, Australia.

I will be in touch with you individually by email in the coming week to organise delivery of your prize!

A big thank you to Patterns from the Past, Ruemiraldi and Majella for these fabulous giveaways!

Thank you to this AMAZING sewing community who took part in the challenge. I was inspired by every email that found its way to my inbox. You are such clever, and ridiculously well dressed ladies!

Colette Voucher WINNERS! + Vogue 1108

Thanks guys for all your lovely words of support (and angst) over google reader breaking up with us. It was daunting at first, but now I've embraced other site readers and I have come to realise that google reader and I were just heading in different directions. Thank you also to the two tubs of ice-cream that supported me through the trauma.

COMPETITION WINNERS!

So with out further ado, here are the four lucky readers who each win a $50 e-voucher for Colette Patterns. Each winner was randomly selected using www.random.org 

Betty Stitchup

Aisha K

Miss Jackson

Eve and the apple tree

Congratulations lovelies! Please email me at julia@juliabobbin.com to redeem your prize.

This week I wanted to share with you a little Smurfette number that I made quite a while ago but haven't blogged about. When I say a while ago, I mean before I housed a human in my gutsies and these photos were taken back then also.

But hey, it's blue, it's pretty and it looks very Mad Men-ish don't you think? Very similar to this green number that Joanie-Joan wore in the promo shots:

Except that in Joan's photo she hasn't had one two many wines before taking the shot...

The Pattern
The pattern is Vogue 1108 and is lined, with an invisible zipper at the side. The bodice has a foundation with boning and a big crazy pleating system which ended up making a really nice feature on the front of the dress. Pattern pieces all start to look the same, so it was a real treat opening up the front pattern piece of the dress, which looked like a broken tree and wondering how the H it's going to end up looking like a dress.

The Fabric
A silk dupion that remarkably I got on sale; that never happens to me! I love dupion as it shapes so well and really knows how to absorb a colour.

Stash busting 101
I used a combination of left over silk scraps that I had in my stash to make the foundation. The foundation is hidden between the shell of the dress and the lining so it didn't matter what colours I used.

Instead of using silk organza for the interfacing, I used 'shapewell' which is a sturdy interfacing with the same sort of qualities as organza but a heck of a lot cheaper.

Pattern Changes/Alterations

The dress has self piping along the neckline which I omitted. I thought there was enough going on with the dress that I didn't need any extra details.

The hem sits a bit longer on me, instead of above the knee as the pattern describes and I like the little extra length. This could have more to do with my short-ass-ness than anything else.

I sewed both shoulders closed and bagged them out, instead of keeping one shoulder open and finishing it with hook and eyes. I thought that it made the dress a bit neater and finished, and it was easy enough to lift the dress above my head to put on, instead of stepping into it.

When I first made my toile for this dress (how very disciplined of me!!) I found that I was swimming in the upper back and that the shoulders kept sliding down my arms. That was with the bodice at a size 12! I have a short torso, but this was just cray-cray.
I ended up reducing the back by a whooping 7 cm on both sides. Other reviewers also found the back a bit big so be wary when making this dress and make a toile first! You can see in the above photo how I reduced it at the back and then created a new cutting line, filling in the space that the dart created. I drew diagonal lines in the space so that you can see. I then transferred these changes onto the facings, foundation and linings.

I used shapewell interfacing again instead of organza for the bow which reduced the floppiness. I also tacked the top of the bow to the dress to avoid it collapsing.

Conclusion
I really liked the elegance of this dress and how it turned out. I got to try out boning for the first time, and I loved how the dress fitted and sat so lovely once it was added.
The dress was a massive effort with 28 pattern pieces that needed to be cut out, two different types of interfacing, lining, foundation and dress fabric. Thank God I made this dress BEFORE the baby was born!

So guess what?!! Only one more week until the MAD MEN CHALLENGE BIG REVEAL!! The dresses are AMAZE-balls! I am so impressed with the number and the quality of entrants that my brain hurts. HURTS I tell you. Thanks to everyone who took part; I can't wait to share them all with you next week.

Colette Patterns 4 x $50 e-Voucher GIVE AWAY and Goodbye Google Reader

Hello sewers and sewer appreciators (the needle and fabric type, not ninja turtles living underground in actual sewerage type),

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be punched in the face by the internet? Well I recently found that out. Turns out daddy google doesn't want to play with google reader any more and is giving it the virtual boot.

What does that mean? Well it means us bloggers who write and read blogs using blogger/blogspot, can no longer follow other blogs using this bad boy:

Google Friend Connect.

What? WHAT?!!? Yep, when we log into our blogs we can't see posts by our favourite bloggers, and our readers can no longer see our blog posts. Still don't know what the H it is? Click here for a bit more info. Effectively you lose a whole bunch of readers to your blog.

Ugh. Well that sucks.

After kicking and flailing my arms and legs around on the kitchen floor to no avail (I DO love a tempter tanty), I decided to look at other options. On a side note, I should REALLY wash my kitchen floor ...

If you currently read my blog with Google Friend Connect, you can stay up to date with my posts by subscribing via email:

Subscribe to JuliaBobbin by Email

By following my blog on Bloglovin'

Or by using Feedly. I haven't played around with this site yet, but it looks like you can transfer the blogs that you follow currently with google reader over to this new platform.

I have starting shifting all of the blogs that I follow over to bloglovin' so I can keep track of new posts. The interface is similar to google reader and I do love how easy it is to use. But I'm still grumpy about it. Don't know what Bloglovin' is? Click here for the run down.

To cheer us all up I decided to do a giveaway:

The Prize:

4 x $50USD e-vouchers for Colette Patterns online store

To WIN:

Follow my blog through Bloglovin' or via email (or heck, anything other than google reader) and comment on this post.

If you already follow my blog through one of these means, then you are welcome to enter as well!

Four lucky peeps will be randomly selected and each will win one $50 e-voucher.

Entries are open to everyone from anywhere in the world. 

Entries close on Friday, April 26th, 2013

The winners will be announced in a blog post on Sunday, April 28th, 2013

So is anyone else put out by the latest news from google? Discovered any great ways to keep up to date with your favourite blogs? Know how to give kitchen floors a good clean?

Let me know!

P.s. - Don't forget to email me your pictures for the Mad Men Challenge An extension has been given until Monday, the 22nd of April so we can work on our projects over the weekend.

I can't wait to share all amazing outfits you guys have made. Such a talented community!

New England Day Dress - Lucky Lucille's Sew For Victory Sew-A-Long

Did you guys know that the super talented Rochelle from the blog Lucky Lucille and myself are best friends?

  

That's ok, she doesn't know we're best friends either. Whoops.
One day however she will be wearing my best friend chain around her wrist even if I have to break a few restraining orders to make it happen.

A few months ago I saw on her blog a 40's dress that she had just made and I fell in love with it! I went straight online and ordered myself a copy of the pattern called the  New England Day Dress so that I could be more like Rochelle make my own version.

The pictures above are of Rochelle's version. Isn't it dreamy? Read about her dress here.

Rochelle is currently hosting a 40's dress sew-along called 'Sew For Victory' and my new dress and I are taking part. There's still time to get involved, so click on the picture below to check out the details. You'll want to check out all the participants amazing creations. Who doesn't love vintage for crying out loud!

So here's my review of the New England Day Dress:

Fabric
A cotton poplin from Spoonflower, 'Shabby Rose', designed by Kristopherk

Like
Easy to make with great easy-paced instructions.

I love the classic vintage shape of this 1940's dress.

The sleeves! I'm majorly crushing on these sleeves, with a 'I want to write his name all over my pencil case' sort of intensity. I mean would you look at that sleeve head?!!

 

It's a combination of small darts finished with a gathered stitch at the head to give the sleeve that structure at the top.

Fake bib top and skirt! How sweet does this look. I used contrasting mustard fabric on the facings of the bib for a bit of 'somethin-somethin'.

It has pockets! Pockets people!

Don't Like
The dress isn't lined and uses facings instead. I'm not the biggest fan of facings instead of linings, but I do like that it's faster to put together.

Look Out For

Really cute babies ...

Put your button holes on you skirt bib before attaching it to the skirt. The instructions doesn't mention this step and I realised at the end of the dress that it needed button holes. This involved a bit of unpicking.

Have a good think about what edges need to be overlocked/serged before you put them together. The instructions only tell you to finish the edges half of the time.

The yardage! Almost every pattern piece is cut on the fold and this chews up a heck of a lot of fabric! Make sure you buy extra fabric as you don't want to be caught short. If I hadn't made the facings a different fabric, I would not have had enough!

Changes Made
I shortened the bodice by 3cm, my usual modification as I have a shorter torso.

Oh heck, here's just a bit more cuteness. Adorable much?

How's everyone going with their outfits for the Mad Men Dress Challenge?

Don't forget to get your Mad Men Dress pics to me by Friday, April the 19th, 2013
click here for the details. Need some inspiration? Check out last years contributors here.

There will also be some great giveaways including vintage brooches from Ruemiraldi, and a $25 gift voucher for Patterns From the Past store

And for those of you who want to let your readers know you are taking part in the challenge, here is a button with the HTML code

<center> <a href="http://www.juliabobbin.com/2013/01/mad-men-dress-challenge-2-you-in.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8231/8431150793_b96cb3f106_o.png" width="200" height="200" alt="mmc27" /></a></center>

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