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Friday 30 October 2015

A (comfy) GLAMOUR Dress

Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

Oh HAI!

Excuse me while I blow the cobwebs off 'ye olden blog'; it has been a while ...

... so let me quickly side track you with my latest creation. Look, it's a dress!

Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

I also recently made an insanely loveable little (huge) baby boy. Scroll down to the bottom of this post if you want to make your ovaries ache.

Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

Back in August Kat from All The Whimsical Things hosted another Frocktails in Melbourne, which gave me the motivation to get out the sewing machine and transform myself from milk machine (do you know how much a 9 pounder DRINKS??!!!!) to glamour puss. Goals.

Because having a toddler and a newborn gives me heaps of spare time *cough* I decided to draft my own dress and make it the day before the event. Why do people let me make decisions for myself? Don't they see that crazed sleep-deprived look in my eye?

Luckily, it worked out! It was a pretty simple dress after all, but it's always the simple ones that end up messing you up! AmIright?!!

Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

DETAILS:

Fabric
I made this out of a cheap stretch that I bought from Spotlight. Ashley was less than 3 months old at the time and I was still in that crazy period where I couldn't bear to drive more than 5 minutes to get to a decent fabric store.
It's not perfect but it still worked, though next time I make this I'll use a fabric with a bit more stretch.

Pattern
Self drafted. I wanted a long skirt with a wide neck and I wanted it in a comfortable stretch. Plus stretch is so much faster to sew. No darts, lots of room for error and finishing seams is optional.

Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress
Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

The skirt is split at the front with rushing near the waistline.

The pattern making took the bulk of the time, but once I had cut out the fabric it only took a few hours to put together. It felt so good to get behind the machine again!

Extra Bits
I completely faced the bodice in the same fabric to give extra support.

Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress
Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

I also attached a strip of thin elastic along the entire width of the neck to stop it from gaping or moving. I made the length of the elastic shorter than the circumference of the neck so that it pulled in a little.
Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

I can pretend that I dress fancy all the time, but a sports bra tan line doesn't lie ...

Julia Bobbin - The GLAMOUR Dress

I had a lovely night chatting with like-minded seamstresses, some people I had met before and some for the first time. It was so nice to get dressed up and talk about sewing!

And now if you'll indulge me, here's my latest human creation:


Meet Ashley Michelangelo, my little angel baby born May 11.  Ashley is named after my father, Michelangelo.
This little beach ball of cuteness was born 13 days over due and within 30 minutes of me arriving at the hospital! All 9 lbs of him! It was an incredible, beautiful birth experience and I still get goose bumps thinking about it. My mum, who drove me to the hospital thinks she is suffering post traumatic stress at the thought that we almost had a 'side of the road' birth.

It's good to be back guys! I've got some great projects lined up and I can't wait to get stuck into them!

Also excuse me dear internet, BUT WHY IS THERE NO SEWING MACHINE EMOJI?!!! I cannot adequately convey my sewing emotions without a cute little picture of a sewing machine. Who do I need to contact to make this happen?

Hope you are all having a lovely fabric filled week :)

50 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your new beautiful baby. This is day before Brisbane frocktails and I have still not made anything but preped about 4 different things and feeling none of them. Could I draft and sew a dress by tomorrow...I don't think so. Your dress looks amazing. As do you.

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    1. Oh my goodness good luck! It's always when you've got nothing on that you nail a dress isn't it!! I'm sure you'll be able to pull something together in time. Thanks so much for your kind words! :) Have fun tomorrow night!

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  2. you are lovelier than ever - good to see you back; you have always been an inspiration to me :) xo

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    1. Thank you Symon, that is so lovely of you to say! It's so good to be back sewing again :)

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  3. Yay Julia! You look stunning in this dress and you are just as gorgeous in person. I agree, dressing up and chatting about sewing is the best. Great to see pics of your cutie boy too. Sounds like it was a dramatic car ride!!

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    1. Thanks lovely lady! It was so nice meeting and chatting with you! Next time you're in Melbourne we will have to catch up for a coffee! :)

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  4. You look beautiful. I didn't get to meet you, too busy skulking on the edges not knowing anyone, but your dress was lovely in real life too!

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    1. thank you! I know it's hard at social occasions isn't it! It's weird feeling like you know someone because you've seen their blog, but haven't actually met them in real life! I never really know how to go up to people! Luckily everyone is so nice! Hopefully we can chat next time!

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  5. You look wonderful, and I love the dress! My second little one was born June 12th, and about 40 minutes after we go to the hospital. Those fast labors are insane!

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    1. Congratulations! They're crazy aren't they! Everyone says the second labour is faster than the first, but because my first was crazy long I still thought this time around it would be still at least a decent time. Boy was I wrong! It was wonderful though :)

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  6. Congrats on your beautiful boys and you look amazing: that dress is tres sexy ��

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    1. Thank you! It's nice to put on a dress and feel a bit fancy :) x

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  7. Julia's BACK and holy wow she's amazing!! Yeah, how do we get that sewing machine emoji.... :)

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    1. Well thank you so much!!! :) And I'm so glad someone else feels my sewing machine emoji pain! :)

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  9. Very happy that you blogged this fabulous creation, it really does look great on you. Sexy and comfy too? winning! And I hear you on hungry 9 pound babies (warning, they night grow up to be even hungrier 9 year olds!) xx

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    1. Have I told you that I love you?!!! It was nice matching you on the night! And thanks for the warning on the 9 year olds!

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  10. Congratulations. You have gorgeous sons.

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  11. You look fantastic and your boys are adorable. :) In August I also had a boy in the 9lb range (9.5lb) he was my third boy.

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    1. Wow congratulations! Boys are beautiful aren't they? And thank you xxx

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  12. Welcome back! What a gorgeous dress. Congratulations on the new baby too. What a cutie!

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    1. Thanks Kat! It's good to be back and I'm getting in to the swing of things with two little muck-abouts around!

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  13. Congrats on the new member of the family. You look stunning!

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  14. What a way to make a re-entrance!! You look amazing!!! You new bundle is pretty cute too!

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    1. Thanks Margo! I think he's pretty cute too, but I'm pretty biased. :)

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  15. ohmagod Julia you're a knock out!! LOVE the dress and those little humans of yours are totally cheek-pinch worthy. Obviously I'm biased with two little men of my own but boys are awesome ;)

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    1. How awesome are little boys? And they love their mummys :) Thanks so much Nat!

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  16. Congratulations on your beautiful baby boy! You look great and I love your dress :)

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    1. Thanks Hana! It's so great to be wearing a dress and be out of the ol' trackies :)

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  17. Congratulations on your new arrival! Adorable. Looking fantastic!

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  18. Huge congratulations on your perfect baby boy! He is super cute!

    Welcome back, and you look absolutely gorgeous in your new dress!

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  19. SO nice to hear from you again! :-) Wonderful dress and you're absolutely beautiful!

    Kind regards,
    Anna from Denmark

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    1. Thanks Anna, that's so nice of you! It feels so good to be sewing again and back in the online community! x

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  20. Wow, you look stunning. You'd never believe you'd given birth (to two gorgeous kids). I love this dress.

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  21. Woohoo! Such a gorgeous little (big?!) boy!! And that dress? Hot mamma!

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    1. Thank you gorgeous mamma of three! :) And thank God for makeup :)

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  22. Haha, I just had my second child in July and we didn't even make it to hospital. Luckily I was still at home though, not in the car or anything. How awful would that be?! The photo of your two boys is so sweet. The dress looks fabulous and I bet it feels great to get glammed up because if you're anything like me life involves a lot of PJs and leggings right now :)

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    1. WOWSERS Naomi that's amazing!! How was it?! I've always secretly wanted a home birth but I've been too scared. I bet it gave you a bit of shock!
      And yes it's so nice to get dressed up as my go-to is my 'activewear' or my pjs. I swear my baby didn't recognise me when I got dressed up the other day ;)

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    2. In hindsight it was really amazing, but at the time I was so worried that I had left it too long and wouldn't be allowed an epidural when we arrived at the hospital! I got my partner to call an ambulance because I knew that I couldn't go in the car, and the 111 operator said that we should prepare to have the baby at home. We put down some towels etc and I pushed with the next contraction - and our baby's head came out - too easy! The midwife wasn't there and my partner was beside himself, but I was so relieved that the painful bit was (mostly) over and was pretty sure everything was fine. The ambulance arrived after a couple of minutes anyway. Now I've done that I suppose I could have a planned home birth if I ever have another child but I'm still not sure if I would or not. It was REALLY nice getting back into a big comfy bed afterwards. Anyway - kind of random writing that in your comments, but us mums do love to discuss birth stories!

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    3. WOW that is EPIC! I so want to grill you on more details! Your husband must have freaked out doing all that by himself (though it is of course us that does that hard work!) and glad to hear everything went smooth regardless. I so love talking about birth stories! I'm not quite sure why, but I love them! Especially ones like yours! :) I so wanted to do a blog post on my birth experience but I didn't think everyone would be interested so I ended up not doing. But I could talk about it till the cows come home! :)

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  23. Gah you're such a hot mom! A gorgeous/super talented/funny/awesome hot mom. ...I think I might be in love with you (insert all the wacky faced "I'm just kidding but not really" emojis, here).

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    1. Excuse me, but I LOVE YOU! That is all :) xxx

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  24. Congratulations! Beautiful dress AND baby, of course!

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  25. There's SMOKE coming off of my computer monitor!!!

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  26. I'm really far behind on my blogroll, so I'm just now seeing this. WOWZA! That's a comeback dress, if I ever saw one. :-D

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