Project Sewn Week 2 - The Era Challenge - Butterick 5747

Thank you so so much to everyone who voted for me last week on Project Sewn. I made it through the first round (hooray!!) and now here is my entry for week two's 'Fashion Era Challenge'.

Once again 50% of the vote is up to the public. So check out the other gorgeous outfits and if mine is your favourite I would be TICKLED PINK if you voted for me. Voting closes Thursday 8pm MDT.

For this weeks challenge we had to make a dress from an era of our choice and I chose the 60s. Surprised much?

The 60s is one of my favourite eras for fashion. The range of styles that were introduced in one decade it incredible. In particular I love the fashion at the beginning of this decade. It still had influences from the 50s but with the attitude and boldness of the new time.

The Pattern

To create my look I used Butterick Pattern B5747 which was originally released in the year 1960.

Image on far right from the Butterick Patterns website

I made version A of the pattern and cut it in a straight size 14.

The instructions were pretty straight forward, though they did jump around a bit.

There is a step missing in the instructions! Watch out when you're about to attach the skirt to the bodice/waist band. It skips the step that has you turn in the waist band at the centre front. This will make sense to you if you are making this dress.

Features of the dress

The dress is closed down the centre front with four buttons.

Like a lot of vintage patterns, the dress isn't lined but uses facings.

The dress has a full pleated skirt, a waist band and a gorgeous boxy collar. I made my dress using a thick quilting cotton and added white trim for contrast. I love how it gives the dress a bit more playfulness.

The dress also features a detachable dickey. I've seen some other bloggers wear this dress without the dickey and it looks gorgeous. Unfortunately my dress doesn't look very 'family friendly' when I wear it without!

The beautiful Anna Neah made a similar dress recently but with a different pattern. I'm bananas about her version. It's like we're sewing twins. It freaks me out how much I love everything she makes. If you don't follow her yet you are CRAY CRAY! Check her out!

Changes I made

I'm actually wearing the dickey slightly lower than the pattern design as it overwhelmed my short torso when I was wearing it the original height. It sort of looked like it was choking me!

I also omitted the belt and used one that I already had. I raised the hem slightly to a length that flattered my shape and height better. No other alterations were made to the pattern which is such a nice change!

Styling

I teamed my dress with red lipstick (of course) a beautiful vintage brooch curtesy of the Ruemiraldi store, a red belt and a big bouncy petticoat that I'm a little bit in love with. I love the fullness it adds! I also tucked my hair under to create a sort of faux bob. My hair is a bit long for this era!

Conclusion

That's it, I'm wearing full skirts every day. Just try and change my mind.

Ok so maybe I'm prone to the obsessive, but I feel like a freaking princess in this dress. And the skirt has excellent twirling capabilities. I'm actually a little bit nervous to go out past midnight incase my dress turns to rags and I lose a shoe. It happens.

A special thanks to my parents Beverley and Michelangelo (who totally has The Kinks stuck in his head now) and my sister Angeline who looked after Harry while I sewed like a maniac to get this finished for the deadline. And of course to my wonderful husband/photographer who patiently photographs me even though I inevitably turn into a diva during the process.

Thanks again for all your support! You can vote for me and my dress here.

Rooibos like a BOSS

It felt for a while there that I was the only person in the blogosphere who hadn't sewn the 'Rooibos' pattern by Colette Patterns.

It had been in my stash since I was basically a foetus, but I just kept putting it to the side. Every time I'd go to pull it out all I would hear is 'These aren't the droids you're looking for'. My stash is a Jedi apparently.

Now that I've made it I can't believe that I waited so long; I love it!

I love how flattering this dress is. It's a great transition dress for me as I slooooowly creep back to my old size before I got pregnant.

It has a flirty, feminine shape that doesn't flash too much fleshola. I dare you to say that sentence 10 times fast. Go on ... I'll wait.

I used navy and white cotton drill for my dress with red and white striped piping. I was inspired by the original Rooiboss dress on the Colette site with the white piping. I like how the red and white stripe makes it a tad more nautical!

I tried out a few new swear words trying to get the piping to sit right around the sharp corners of the collar. In the end I just made the corners curved and it worked. Yay! You can of course make the pattern without piping and then there's no problems. I do love though how the piping really adds to the playfulness of the dress.

The dress has a raised waistline which hugs the body. It has a beautiful curved back neckline and gorgeous flattering pockets that sit on a gored skirt.

The only change I made to this dress was to do a (massive) full bust adjustment (FBA) which in my case could be called a full breastfeeding adjustment. The irony is I can't really wear this dress until I stop breastfeeding as there's no real access to the bobby-ta-tas.

I styled the dress with a red belt to break up the solid colour, a cute vintage brooch and some fabulous Melissa shoes

If you're curious about how I did my hair, I was inspired by this mini tutorial on one of my Pinterest boards.

So what do you think?
Have you got a pattern you put off making and then fell in love with once you finally made it? I'd love to hear about it!

Sewing for TWO ... (Burda 7739)

Hello young lovers!

You may or may not have noticed that I have been a little absent from the blogging world as of late.

There's a reason.

I've been spending the bulk of my sewing time sleeping, eating for Australia, fighting nausea, growing pimples (apparently I'm going through puberty at 30) and feeling a bit fuzzy in the head.

No I'm not sick ... (or going through puberty)

I'm pregnant!

That's right, Robin and I are high-fiving each other (and strangers - awkward) on a daily basis  and we're ridiculously excited. Though I think Robin's convinced that I'm going to give birth to a sewing machine instead of a human.

I'm currently 19 weeks pregnant and I'm finally starting to get my energy and creative drive back.

I think that Ms. Oona Balloona was onto something with her theory that our creativity peak correlates to when we ovulate. A fabulously interesting blog post. Seeing as my ovaries have gone into hibernation for nine months and my bossy hormones have kicked in, my creative quality was about level with a kindergartener doing finger painting. With their eyes closed. Without any fingers.

But as the draining first trimester is fading away in the distance, I am finding my back up reserve in creative skills and getting back into the sewing room. Oh Lordy!

And so here is my latest dress with the assistance of Butterick 7739.

The shapes and dresses that I usually make are made to accentuate my small waist. Now that my waist is expanding on a daily basis I am faced with a bit of a problem. What the #$% am I going to make?

Hello empire waist lines! This Burda pattern is not a maternity pattern but works perfectly for a tummy that is starting to resemble a house. In fact I've made a dress with this pattern before. Remember this dress?

This time I made the dress in a thick wool crepe that I purchased from Mood Fabrics on my recent trip to New York. I love sewing with wool crepe. It's like crack cocaine for my sewing machine; Janome just loves it.

I love the simple vintage signatures of this dress with the peter pan collar.

I added a rick-rack trim to the border of the collar and the skirt hem for a little bit of cutesy-ness. And let's be honest, who doesn't love blue and white together. It adds a bit of the nautical to the look. I added a gorgeous brooch to the dress, given to me by the wonderful Ruemiraldi store which compliments the vintage look nicely.

Sewing a garment again is like a breath of fresh air for me. It's so nice to be back in the sewing room! This dress also gives me confidence that just because I am cooking a sweet little baby in my belly, I don't have to compromise on my vintage style.