Hey Mr, she's my Sister! Pippa Middleton Copy-Cat - Butterick 5710

 

Ladies and gentleman, I would like to introduce to you the mother of all copy-cat dresses:

The Pippa Middleton bridesmaids dress.

  

Yes sir! I was one of the many millions of viewers that tuned into the Royal wedding just over a year ago and oohed and ahhed over the many fancy-pantsy dresses. 

 

... And gagged too, let's be honest. What the H were Princess Beatrice and Eugenie thinking? Seriously, when did hats that resemble lobsters come in vogue? Dear God!

When Butterick released a copy-cat pattern of the bridesmaid dress (pattern #5710) I purchased me a copy straight away. I didn't have any plans to make it for myself but the stalker in me insisted on having it.

Not so long ago I got this crazy idea that it would be fun to push my sewing skills and make a dress to fit someone else's body.

I don't know where this un-selfish epiphany came from - maybe I ate something funny that day - but it started nagging away at my brain until I decided I would seriously give this a crack. I started flicking through my patterns and this Butterick pattern commanded my attention.

The pattern appealed to me for a few reasons:

1. I'm a total sucker for a copy-cat dress.

2. It would a fun challenge to see if I could make a full gown and have it half resemble the inspiration dress, and

3. My sister Angeline would totally look ACE of BASE in this dress. (Coincidently Angeline was also my Maid of Honour at my own wedding back in October 2011)

Challenge accepted!

Yes, that's right, the knock-out model wearing the dress I made is none other than my spunk of a sister, Angeline.

 

Is she a total babe or what?!!!

We don't look much alike I know. I think dad ran out of his Italian genes by the time Angeline was born; She's the fourth child and I'm the first.

 

This pattern was a breeze to follow and well explained. The skirt of the dress is cut on the bias which gives such a lovely drape to the form fitting dress.

 

Instead of inserting an invisible zipper down the centre back, I used elastic looping trim and hand sewed 36 fabric covered buttons down the spine. I love the effect! I was pretty slow putting them all in as I wanted to make sure they were perfectly straight and spaced apart. It took soooo long, but it was worth it.

 

I also added the lace trim before I attached the lining, just like you would do with piping. The pattern had you add the lace once the dress was finished, exposing a top-stitch which I thought was unnecessary. It was just as easy to add it before the lining and it makes it look much neater.

  

The wool crepe colour was white, but in reality it was more ivory than white. The lace trim I purchased was a stark white and looked almost blue against the ivory of the wool crepe.
Instead of buying new trim I dyed it using a natural dye; an Earl Grey tea-bag.

 

I filled a bowl with hot water, diffused it with the tea bag, and then put in the lace.I kept pulling the lace out every five seconds to check the colour of the lace; I didn't want it to get too dark. At about 20 seconds the colour was just right. I removed the lace from the tea water and left it out to dry. Once it dried I ironed it flat again.

 

The amazing part about my sister Angeline is that she is one of those rare people that is one pattern size all over. According to the back of the pattern, her measurements should have meant I cut out a size 12 but instead I cut an 8 and it fits perfectly.

  

The dress is fully lined and the fabric shell is made of luscious 100% wool crepe which drapes and sews like a dream.

Dress Cost

I decided to record exactly how much this dress cost me to make, including fabrics and a wage of $25AUD per hour for labour. Here's what it came to:

• 3 Metres of 100% wool crepe, 2.5 metres of lining from Clegs $160
• Fabric covered buttons made by Button Mania $21
• Lace trim and notions $10
• 14 hours to make the dress - $350

Total Cost = $541AUD 

Bear in mind however that the original Alexander McQueen dress was reportedly around 20,000 British pounds ($31,600AUD) though that seems a bit excessive.

Also recently Sarah Burton, who designed the dress for Alexander McQueen started selling a silk-crepe version on-line for 2,118 pounds ($3,346AUD) and that version has an invisible zipper down the centre back instead of buttons and no lace trim. You can see it online here

So $541 isn't looking so bad for a fully lined, floor length, 100% wool-crepe dress!

Don't know what I'm going to do with the dress now that it's finished. Maybe I'll see if someone wants to buy it!

I've never been a 'cowl neck' sort of gal, but I love it on this dress. It sits so perfectly with the wool crepe and the cut of the pattern is very flattering on the bodice.

 

The cowl neck folds in and and looks like this when it's pulled out.

 

There are no darts on the skirt front and back, and with the fabric cut on the bias, there would be a lot of ladies that wouldn't be able to get away with the bottom half of this dress. 

i.e. -Me

 

Angeline has the perfect shape for this sort of dress. Though she is very petite, she still has a lot of shape and I think she definitely gives Pippa a good run for her money in the bottom department.

So there you have it ladies and gentleman. I have made my very own Pippa Middleton bridesmaid dress and I am very happy with the results.

That's what's been keeping me busy these last few weeks! Has any one else attempted this pattern or are thinking about giving it ago? I'd love to see your versions!

A special thanks to my wonderful sister Angeline for modelling the dress for me.

Happy sewing!

A wedding dress of sorts

Robin liked it, so he put a ring on it.

Yes it's true ladies and gents, Miss JuliaBobbin officially became a Mrs. RobinBobbin when she said 'Heck yes' on October 15, 2011.

We got married at the beautiful Werribee Park Mansion in front of our wonderful family and friends ... and a few random passer-bys (bless their curious eyes).

Robin and I first locket eyes and limbs (not in a scandalous way I assure you!) in a Salsa dance class at the Night Cat 3 years ago. Robin was basically Patrick Swayze with an Australian accent and I was 'baby in the corner' ... but right at the start of the movie when she can't dance... Needless to say after a lot of excessive eye-lid fluttering and spins on the dance floor, we fell (triple spun) in love and made our sacred vows.

So as you can imagine, it's common knowledge amongst our friends and family that we dance salsa and so guess what dance they expected us to do for our wedding dance ... salsa (regardless of how totally ACE we are dancing to MC Hammer, it just wasn't wedding appropriate). Ok Salsa it is.
One problem. My wedding dress was big enough to fit a medium size family under and was not in any way Salsa friendly.
Solution: make me a dress for the salsa dance!

This actually ended up being a blessing. I had purchased my wedding dress back in January 2011 when I had really only been sewing for just over a year and was not up to the epic task of sewing my own wedding dress. By the time we had decided to do a salsa dance I had had a bit more experience and wanted to make a separate dress for the dance. This would feel in some way that I'd made a wedding dress of sorts for my wedding day, just without the 'vomit-every-morning' sort of pressure. Just to wedding it up, I made it in white silk dupion, french lace and lace motifs.

The dress was easy to put together, seeing as I imitated my previous design with the Tessuti Awards dress so I'd already had practice.

I made a half circle skirt for twirling comfort and added three flat folds of silk dupion on the hem to give the skirt a bit of detail without overbalancing the lace bodice. I cut these strips on the bias to give extra flexibility.

I used for the bodice beautiful French Chantilly lace that I bought on sale from Clegs a few moons ago. I interlined the front of the bodice with dupion to stop it from being see-through.

The style of this dress with the full loose skirt made for very comfortable dancing. I ended up keeping this dress on for the rest of the reception after our dance. We had an amazing band who played old-school RNB, funk and reggae with some latin grooves, so there was no way I was sitting like a doily all night while people danced away! Even though I do love my wedding dress!

I teamed the dress with a stunning hand-made floral head piece made of silk and feathers from the ridiculously talented Twigs and Honey Seriously, I start hyperventilating every time I go onto their site; their stuff is painfully beautiful!

I hand stitched lace motifs onto the skirt of the dress and blended them into the bodice. This took a million freaking years. I wanted to make sure you couldn't see any of the hand stitching. I did however find this process quite relaxing; the repitition and back-to-basic-ness of it all.

Can you see the stitching? No? Exactly.

I was very happy how this dress turned out and that I got to wear something on the day that I had made. There won't be too many occasions in the future where I will have the chance to wear a white dupion and lace dress again (wedding vow renewals perhaps?!) but I love it just the same.

Our first dance was a traditional slow dance in my actual wedding dress. We danced to the song that my husband wrote, recorded and proposed to me with. It is such an amazing song and I still get goosebumps when I hear it. It has to be one of the most romantic things I have ever experienced.

For our choreographed salsa dance we rocked out to a Michael Jackson Latin remix of 'Rock my world' and once the music started my nerves went away and we had an absolute blast!

Here's a few pictures of me in my actual wedding dress if you're curious ...

Very simple and clean. My salsa dress had all the bling on it! We haven't got our professional shots back yet so these ones are curtesy of my wonderful dad and a few friends on facebook! (God bless facebook).

 Me and my ridiculously handsome husband. Isn't he dreamy?!

Me wearing my dress with my two good friends Teuila and Bryce 

 From left: Cousin Josh, Brothers Daniel and Genaaron and cousin Elizabeth. Did I mention that my family is full of talented musicians?! I was so lucky to have my family play at our wedding ceremony.

Me and the first man I ever loved (and still do) my wonderful dad; Michelangelo (no he is not a ninja turtle).

We had such an amazing night and my dress was a success. But the best part? I got to marry me the love of my life. I know I sound cheesy, but I finally found a man who is my sort of crazy and gives me the warm and fuzzies.