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! 

Mustard and Lace Dress + Give Away Winner!!

If you can't eat it ... wear it.

I recently found out that I'm not supposed to eat mustard. But nobody said I couldn't wear it.

I have not however been given restrictions on lace, though I'm sure it's not entirely good for me to eat. Or is it ...

So I made me up a dress with a lace bodice and a mustard skirt. In your face nutrionists!

Now before I get carried away with my ins and outs of my new fancy pants dress, let's talk Give Away. Oh yes.

I'm very happy to announce that the winner of this months give away, chosen using the Random Number Generator is the very Purpelicious ......

Naomi!

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of 2 metres of pure silk Peau de Soie/Duchess Satin. I will be contacting you via email shortly.

Ok, now that the balloons have been released from the ceiling let's talk latest dress.

I made this dress using just over half a metre of stunning french lace that I bought from the Tessuti Fabric Store in Melbourne. They had just recently sent out an email to all us fabric addicts showing us their new stock of laces.

Seriously I should just start getting HR at work to pay my wage directly into Tessuti's bank account. I am addicted to their fabrics and cannot stop myself from buying everything that comes into that store.

Any way ... Here's a photo of some of their laces.

Seeing those photos was like a starving man seeing a leg of lamb. My mouth started salivating and I started banging my head repeatedly against a wall. My husband thinks I'm like the self-punishing Dobby from Harry Potter. Which in my opinion is totally off;  I never wear loin clothes. Much.

I love the pattern in this lace. A lot of laces you see now a-days have floral features on them (which I love). I found this pattern delicate and unique.

I featured the beautiful shaped edging by making little cap sleeves out of them.

I underlined the bodice with a cotton lawn so that my bodice wasn't seethrough. Otherwise you would be able to see through to all my wires and buttons and discover my secret that I'm actually a robot (with feelings).

Underlining is great for giving fabric extra-support, drape or to stop a fabric being see-through. It can also help to bring out the colour in your fabric shell. In my case it also stopped the loosely woven lace from stretching and changing it's shape as I sewed with it.

For those of you that have never Underlined before, here's the deal-io.

First, you cut out the identical pattern piece for both the shell and the underlining fabric.
Typically the underlining is a lighter fabric than the shell but not always. Here I've used a cotton lawn as the underlining and the fabric shell is lace.

Look how naked the lace is!

Then, you place the wrong side of the fabric shell (lace) onto the right side of the underlining fabric (cotton lawn).

This means that both of the good sides of the two fabrics are facing up.

Pin the shell to the interlining.

Then carefully you baste the two fabrics together within the seam allowance using a long stitch.  You can do this by hand or by machine. I used the machine for mine.

I used a pink thread so you can see my stitches.

Once you have basted the two fabrics together the piece now acts as one piece of fabric.

Now my lace is underlined and no longer see through!
My example is a little wonky as I rushed it. Yours will look much neater I'm sure.

You can then go ahead and make all your notches and markings on the wrong side of your underlined piece.

Now when you do darts and pleats the two pieces of fabric are kept together and the folds are hidden at the back of the piece instead of being visible from the front.

 

And there you have it. Doesn't that make it look neater?!!

Back to the dress!
I made a scoop neck front and back because I love the shape of it.

I then made up the skirt part of the dress in a quilting cotton that I found on special at Spotlight. Sold! it has tiny little white flowers in it that I find incredibly satisfying in an unexplained way.

I lined the skirt (good girl Julia).

I added two strips of fabric on the hem of the skirt also as a little feature for the bottom half of the dress. These strips were cut out and then folded in half so that they were self faced. I then attached them by machine onto the dress.

The skirt and the bodice are joined together at the waist, with an invisible zipper down the centre back.

And there you have it. I have combined two of my favourite things into one dress. Lace (I don't think I'll ever stop loving lace) and mustard, which is everywhere at the moment ...

...except on my dinner plate.