The Redemption Wedding Dress

Last year the lovely Leisl from Jorth and Nichola from Handmaker's Factory put on a special night called 'The Dressmaker's Ball'.

The evening was a fabulous get-together for seamstresses alike to wine, dine and make merry while wearing beautiful frocks that they had made themselves.

Of course I used the opportunity to get dramatic ... and make what is basically a wedding dress.

#divaforlife

THE DETAILS

Fabric

The bodice is made up of the most beautiful guipure lace that I purchased from Tessuti Fabric years ago and had saved for something special.

It has such a beautiful pattern that is a little different to the typical 'floral' pattern that a lot of laces feature. But the best part is the selvages! It has two different finishes; a beautiful scallop on one side, and a delicate fringe of lace on the other.

The skirt and the underlining of the bodice is made from a drape-y polyester/wool that I purchased from The Fabric Store which just seemed to match the style and the colour of the lace perfectly.

Racer back tan for life

The Pattern

The bodice is one of my own designs, with a lace back, and an underlined lace bodice front.

The skirt is Vogue 2931 from the waist down and fully lined. I've used the pattern before for the skirt of this dress:

The princess seams of the skirt add a flattering silhouette, while the low lace back and front adds drama and a little bit of sexiness.

Oh hey sports bra tan!

Construction
The seams of the bodice and lace are finished with bias binding. The dress is closed down the centre back with an invisible zipper
I added the long delicate fringe edge of the fabric along the waistline for a soft, dreamy look, which helps create a flow from the bodice to the skirt.

Conclusion
This dress turned out just how I hoped and I love the dreamy, bohemian feel of it.

I got married back in 2011 just after my two year sewing anniversary. At the time my sewing was still pretty green so I purchased a wedding dress and made a dress for dancing in at the reception. Our wedding dance was a salsa routine so there was no dancing in a full length wedding gown!

Though I loved my wedding dress, there was a little part of me that was sad that it wasn't made by me.  It's like a rite of passage for seamstresses and usually the most special dress you get to make. I was still pretty new to sewing then and hadn't yet developed my style, so it was probably a good thing I didn't make my dress!  This dress is in a way my redemption wedding dress, five years later.

Spring Dress - Project Sewn FINAL Week

It's the final week of Project Sewn! Wah!

I feel so honoured to have made it to the final round. Thank you guys so much for following along and voting for me. Please accept one million dollars* as a token of my appreciation.
*invisible money and not actual money.

Project Sewn has gotten me back into the thick of my sewing passion and for that I am so grateful. It has also taken me away from housework. Lets just say that my son Harry is not the only thing growing in my house at the moment. At least now I can take a breather and restore order to our abode. I'm sure my husband would be happy to hear this, if I hadn't lost him a few weeks ago in one of the laundry piles. I'm going to miss that guy.

So for the last time this season, click here to check out the fabulous creations and VOTE for your favourite!

This week the theme was to create something of our own style.
When it comes to looks that define us, I have a bit of a split personality. The great part about being able to sew is that you get to experiment with all different types of looks, and I love many! I lean towards vintage, the 60's in particular with it's feminine silhouettes, but I'm also drawn to modern fashion with architectural shapes and lines. So which one do I choose?

I decided on this little number which is feminine, soft and vintage but yet wouldn't be out of place at a spring event today . The moment I put this dress on I feel like me.

Details

The dress is made using beautiful ivory lace and underlined with satin. Underlining gives the lace structure and stops it from being see through! I took extra time to make sure that the lace patterns lined up and matched on all the pieces. Check out my tutorial here on underlining lace.

I featured the scalloped edge on the skirt hem of the dress and by making little cap sleeves for the bodice.

I made a scoop neck on the front and back of the bodice,  and added soft pleats on the bodice front neckline. The dress is closed down the centre back with an invisible zipper.

I wanted a big full skirt to go with the fitted bodice. I shaped the skirt waist by making small even knife pleats along the waist. This takes longer than gathering the skirt, but it creates an even shape and makes the skirt sit a bit flatter to the stomach instead of foofing out where you don't need foofing.

This dress would be perfect for an afternoon tea party, a garden wedding or the Melbourne Spring Races which is in a few weeks time!

Styling

Earrings: Swarovski (I wore these on my wedding day!)

Brooch: Myers

Belt: Alannah Hill

Shoes: Burgundy sandals from Zara

Thank you again to everyone for your kind words of encouragement and support throughout this competition! It has kept me going on those days when I never thought I would finish in time!

Don't forget to check out the entries and VOTE for the winner! 

Project Sewn Week 1 - Little Black Dress

Ladies and Gentleman I'd like to introduce you to my entry for Project Sewn's Week 1 Challenge: The little black dress.

Project Sewn is a wonderful online blogger competition with six contestants. Each week there is a different theme and one contestant is eliminated until there are only three people left. I've loved putting my dresses together so even if I get eliminated in week one I'll still be sharing them with you guys here!

Voting
Who stays on in the competition is decided by public vote. So if you like my dress, I'd love it if you'd show your support by voting!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE :) (Scroll to the bottom of the post for the voting)

And make sure you check out the other contestants fabulous outfits. They are simply amazing!

When I think little black dress I think, classy, sexy, alluring and timeless. I feel like I could fight crime in this dress. On another note, how awesome would a couture super hero be?

My dress was inspired by my recent trip to Italy. Everywhere you looked you were surrounded by beauty; it was almost overwhelming. I purchased this stunning black lace while staying in Florence, and I knew it would be perfect for this challenge.

I wanted the lace to be the focus of the dress as it is so beautiful. I made a low back featuring the scalloped edging of the lace.

I underlined the front bodice with a cotton lawn and added a detachable lace dickey for extra modesty. Check out my tutorial here on how to underline fabric.

The skirt is a silk that has been blended with polyester for extra strength. It is such a forgiving and structured fabric and beautiful to sew with.

The dress is closed with an invisible zipper down the centre back, and the armholes are finished with bias binding. 

 

I styled the dress with a belt that I bought when I was in Italy. I've always been a sucker for bling and I like the little something extra it adds to the outfit. Below is a picture without the belt. I think it works both ways.

This is the first evening dress that I have made since giving birth to my son eight months ago and wearing it is like a breath of fresh air. It's so nice to feel a bit fancy-pantsy and put on a frock that makes you look less like a mum and more like a minx. It sure is a nice change from my pyjamas. Now I just need somewhere to wear it!

If you like my dress you can vote for me here! Voting closes this Thursday.

Thank you Project Sewn for asking me to be part of this fabulous competition. I am honoured and excited to be included amongst such talent!

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. 

Pink Lace dress - McCall 6322

Fact: I am scared of spiders. Seriously.

Within two seconds of seeing a spider I go from being cool, calm and collected to a 'Price is Right' contestant on crack who's coming down from a bad trip.

I'm certain that spider is looking at me through it's eight dirty little eyes thinking 'Damn, that bitch is cray-cray.'

The other night I came home to discover a big huntsman spread eagled on the front door. I back flipped away from that front door so fast it was like I was Neo from 'The Matrix'.

I stared at that spider (from a safe distance) and started to analyse myself. I tried to think logically about my fear. I mean, the spider is not out to get me (or is it ...), it's smaller than me, why do I let this massive  small little monster creature freak me out so much?

And COME ON, can any one blame me for being scared of something that is called a 'Hunts-MAN'. For the love of all that's holy, it HUNTS ... MEN!  I don't think this is an irrational reaction!

After fruitlessly throwing leaves at the spider from 20 metres away like a crazy person, I did what all rational, mentally healthy women would do. I waited outside for twenty minutes, in the cold and dark for my husband to come home.

Turns out, we are hard wired to fear spiders according to a British Psychology professor.  People tend to dislike angular shapes and have bad associations with dark colours. We like curved shapes and bright colours. Hence, why we don't start shrieking at the sight of a lady-bug. Read the article at DailyMail

One of the places that I do like angular shapes and dark colours is sewing, though my recent dress is very 'anti-spider' with its many curves and friendly colours.

Introducing my latest number:

Look at my belly grow! It looks like a small family is growing in there.

My wonderful cousin Anthony married his beautiful bride Katherine in a moving ceremony three weeks ago.  I knew I wanted to make a dress for the occasion, and I thought it would be a great way to really break me back into my sewing rhythm. This is the dress that I made and wore to the wedding.

My husband took these photos of me in the dress a few days ago with my 23 week pregnant belly already bigger than it was three weeks ago at the wedding!

My inspiration for this dress came from the fabulous Betty from Mad Men who rocked a very pretty dress in Season 3 Episode 3 of Mad Men. Photos curtesy of Tom and Lorenzo.

I remember seeing this episode for the first time and falling in love with this dress. I thought Betty looked so fresh and innocent. Which is ironic as this is the occasion where she meets the man she would leave her husband for. Awkward.

I thought this would be exactly the sort of fancy pantsy dress I would like to wear when I was pregnant one day. One fertilised egg later and this dress jumped back into my consciousness. And you all know I have a wee soft spot for Mad Men fashion.

To make my version of this dress I used McCall pattern 6322

As you can see, my version looks quite a bit different from the picture on the packet, but the shape and silhouette has not been changed.

To compensate for my fast expanding stomach and, let's be honest, my ever growing bosom (sorry dad!) I cut the dress in a pattern size 16.

Pattern Alternations

I lowered the neckline by 1.5cm

And shortened the bodice at the shoulders by 2 cm.

I removed 4cm excess around the circumference of the empire waistline by enlarging the darts below the bust. I slightly gathered the top of the skirt so that the skirt fit the narrower bodice, while also giving extra room for the belly.

I made my own sleeves to go with the dress for a more evening look.

I purchased this stunning french lace at Stitches to Style and had to do some serious deep breathing before I cut into it at home.

I made the EPIC mistake of telling my husband how much the lace cost per metre. What.Was.I.Thinking??!!! I blame this lack of secrecy on my new pregnant brain. What woman, chooses to disclose the price of LACE fabric for Petes sake! Every good fabric-holic understands that what their partner doesn't know won't hurt them.
After my dear husband re-assembled his jaw (which has smashed unceremoniously as it had hit the floor) he recovered and was able to appreciate the beauty and value of the fabric, in an abstract sort of way. Look! It has shiny bits in it!

Detailing

I underlined the lace in a beautiful silk dupion from Clegs. See my blog post here on how to underline lace. The dress is also fully lined and closed down the centre back with an invisible zipper.

I spent hours matching up the patterns on the lace so that everything was centered and the scallop on the hem of the skirt and sleeves matched.

My apologies for the lack of hook-and-eye, it has been fixed since these photos!

Instead of putting a centre back seam in the skirt of the lace, I removed the seam allowance and cut it as one big piece. This meant that the pattern on the back of the lace wasn't interrupted by a big seam line. I made a placket at the top of the centre back seam on the skirt so that I'd still be able to get into the dress. I was really pleased with how it turned out, and my first ever placket!

  

I made a cute little belt with a bow out of left over silk dupion. I cut the belt fabric on the bias and interlined it to strengthen it. The belt closes with two hook-and-eyes.

My main accessory for the dress? Red lipstick (of course!) I had lots of lovely comments on the night, which made all my hard work worth it! Every time I sew with lace, I just want to make another ten more!

 Hope you're all having a fabulous sewing week xxx