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! 

Sunshine and Spots + Give Away Winner!

Thank you to all the lovely people who commented on my recent blog post ‘lace giveaway ….’ And for all your colour suggestions for the vintage dress that I recently purchased the pattern for. Looks like I’ll be making about ten different colour versions of this dress, which could not possibly be a bad thing!

The winner of the delicious guipure lace was selected by random. I assigned a number to each person who left a comment and then got my husband to pull one name out of a hat. To highlight the importance of the task, I made him thoroughly wash his hands first, and then wrap them in 100% silk before selecting the random number from the hat. These things must be done properly!

So, without further ado I am very excited to announce the winner of the Guipure lace is the lovely …..

Abby from the blog Sew Get Dressed 

Yay! Congratulations Abby!

Thank you everyone for your super kind comments that filled me with all sorts of warm and fuzzies.

Meanwhile, here’s a lil’ something I’d been working on. I call it ‘Sunshine with spots’ because … well, it’s yellow, and it has spots.

This dress is another creation made with Tessuti Fabrics. The yellow shell is a Stretch Cotton called Canary which was an absolute delight to sew with and had the added benefit of cheering me up every time I looked at it. You just can’t help but feel a little more chipper when you look at such a friendly colour.

I drafted my own Peter Pan collar for the neckline and made it using a Japanese cotton also from Tessuti called Sand Yuki Small 

I made little ‘stick-out’ sleeves (pretty sure that’s not the technical term) which I lined with the same polka dot cotton. Isn’t it pretty?!

I made my first attempt at a scalloped hem on the skirt of the dress. It gives it a playful look and was surprisingly straight forward.

I'm seeing scalloped hems everywhere at the moment and so I thought I'd see what the fuss was all about. I quite like the idea of the scalloped hem, though it does make me feel a little bit Wilma Flinstone.

I adjusted the width of the skirt back on account of my fuller behind (thank you Christmas!) without changing the side seams and hem, using my recent technique. You can see the ‘How to’ blog post here. 

I made a round scoop neck on the front and back.

Thanks again lovely people for following my blog and helping me celebrate my first milestone!