hello! I’ve made a couple of new dresses lately… followers of my ootd blog may have seen these pop up over there already. Remember back in January I made up the free Orla dress pattern designed by Sarah May of French Navy? well Sarah very kindly invited me to be a part of her tester group for her new dress pattern, the Forsythe dress. That little Orla has been an excellent wardrobe mainstay… my little counter tells me I’ve worn it ten times already since I made it in January, which is pretty good for me! so I happily accepted.
The Forsythe is a relaxed fit dress with short, cuffed kimono sleeves, a slightly dropped waistline and a gathered skirt with hip yoke pockets, and a back button closure. However, I have found that that button-back closure is pretty much decorative… the wide neckline and relaxed fit is sufficient enough that I can pull the dress easily over my head without having to undo any buttons. Win!
I’ve actually made two Forsythes… the floral at top is my second and “real” version of the pattern, and that is me dressed to wear it out out to our recent anniversary dinner, at Cape Lodge in Yallingup. We’ve been married 29 years! and little chic little floral rayon number paired with black tights, black booties and my chocolate leather jacket was the perfect thing for a special and romantic dinner out.
But maybe I should talk about this one, my first “muslin” version first… I made this one using three pairs of my husband’s old dress trousers, respectively a charcoal wool, charcoal and white cotton/linen pinstripe, and a chocolate/blue cotton pinstripe… these have been in my refashioning bag so long there was actually an old spider’s nest on one of them! eeeek! I gave them all a quick brush over the garden and then into the washing machine they went… then it was out with the scissors… snip snip!
This dress was really just a quick run-up of the pattern to test for fit and to see that it worked. Of course it did! but the trousers fabric was really too stiff for the gathered skirt as in the pattern, so I instead folded the excess fabric into wide pleats in the front. I quite like this effect because it also suits the formal “dress pants” vibe of the fabric too.
The relaxed fit in crisp fabric gave a rather boxy result for my taste, so I later unpicked and took in the bodice through those handy princess seams in the bodice. I think the more shaped and fitted streamlined look suits the crisp, stiff fabric better.
I also put inset strips of the plain charcoal into the princess seams to highlight the seaming… I LOVE how this looks, and the play of different stripes, blocks, lines and crisp angular intersections
I really like this little “trousers” Forsythe dress, however I felt a bit bad though that I had used cruddy old fabric to make up my dress, and hadn’t even done the recommended gathered skirt either, like I hadn’t done a “proper” job. so I quickly nipped out to Spotlight to get some nicer fabric and make my “real” Forsythe. I thought the gathered skirt was more suited to a very thin and slinky drapey fabric like rayon. Sarah May is from Cape Town in South Africa, and so as soon as I saw the selvedge of this lovely rayon floral print I knew it was totally perfect!
Plus it’s sooooo pretty! I actually like this one a lot more than the “trousers” one, hardly surprising really! I took care when laying out the pattern pieces in order to get a really nice and hopefully, a visually pleasing print placement on the dress.
This version is made up exactly to the pattern, with the proper gathered skirt and all, the only exception is that I put seven buttons on the button band at the back instead of the recommended five. The only reason for this is that the little packet of perfect brown tortoiseshell buttons I picked up in Spotlight had seven buttons in it and I didn’t want leftovers.
In other news; some other things I’ve made recently. Four more pairs of black tights, in polyester stretchy stuff from Spotlight.
I made these using my own custom-fit pattern, devised as described here.
I wear black tights a LOT; I wore last years’ well over one hundred times, the heels on some have worn out and so I chopped off the feet and converted them to leggings now. So I reckon making a few new pairs each year is very worthy use of my time. And, for everyday wear, my own handmade tights really are so much better than rtw, for two simple reasons.
- FIT! Take a gander at the side-by-side comparison of my own handmade tights to a pair of extra-tall rtw tights on the right. Yes, those are extra-talls!! It’s easy to see why I have to nip into the ladies room several times a day to hoink the tights back up… SO ANNOYING! After wearing my own tights for a year I’d forgotten that that was even a thing… I love the sophistication of beautifully sheer seamless legs that you can only get with rtw, and I don’t mind putting up with the disadvantage of the crotch migrating inexorably southwards for the advantage of that on special occasions, but on an ordinary, everyday, day? Nope.
My custom fit tights have fitted feet, and are shaped all the way up my legs. They might look a little funny, but they were made to fit exclusively ME!
2) and secondly WARMTH. I make my own handmade tights from opaque black polyester stretch, and they are super warm and comfy compared to even the thickest of thick rtw tights. Again, for special occasions, being a bit cold is a small price to pay for the beauty of sleek sheer legs, but not for everyday.
Four pairs of handmade tights can feel like a bit of an unexciting production line to make, but ultimately they are the most hardworking and practical things in my wardrobe.
high-tech method for telling the front from the back in the pre-dawn light that usually illuminates my dressing…
Details:
Floral at top and below;
Dress; the Forsythe dress by French Navy, printed rayon
Jacket; Burda 08/2010;113, chocolate pleather, details and my review of this pattern here
Tights; made by me, my tutorial on how to make your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Booties; nylon, from Zomp shoes
Charcoal/chocolate striped version:
Dress; slightly altered French Navy Forsythe dress, made using three pairs of old business trousers
Tights; made by me, my tutorial on how to make your own custom fit tights pattern is here
Shoes; made by me, details here
location: out to dinner l’anniversaire; Yallingup in the south west of Western Australia
That floral dress is adorable and the photos are really lovely. What a perfect outfit and location for a special dinner x
The floral dress is lovely. The other Forsythe made from trousers is admirable for the skill in making it, it is a tad boxy though.
BTW 29 yrs is an accomplishment. I wish you many more happy years together.
Charming new dresses, both lovely in their own way! Hope you had a fabulous anniversary x
Happy anniversary! Lovely dresses 🙂
Thanks for sharing. You always inspire me with your beautiful clothes. I really love the dress you made out of your husbands trousers. It’s really interesting and cute. Happy anniversary.
Your trouser-dress is so special and I hope that you will wear it sometimes even in it’s boxyness. Maybe with pleats a little more centered it would be a little less boxy? I like the colours!
The floral dress is adorable! The print is very pretty and you have made a perfect placing of the lovely flowers. The pattern proporions are beautiful and I can see why yo would wear it regularly!
Oh Carolyn, I love your muslin made out of your husbands pants! The color-blocking on that just makes me swoon!
The fabric from Spotty is gorgeous and looks lovely made up in this pattern. Happy anniversary!
Beautiful! I’ve got 3m of that fabric in my stash, it’s so pretty! I’m thinking a kimono out of some, and a frock from the rest will do nicely! I have that problem too with RTW tights. Ye olde crotch sag is not sexy….
Happy Anniversary!
I love the floral fabric you used – it suits you so well!
I’m always hitching up my tights, despite buying the largest size!
I am reaching for this looser style dress more and more of late (Ihave a mechant and mills factory dress cut out) I want to be comfortable and have room to expand and contract! Your dress is stunning but I am laughing because rtw tights are too long for me, I have lots of wrinkles round the knees!! Jo x
Wow the setting is perfect and fairy talish for that floral dress!
Have you ever tried wearing a second slip on top of rtw tights? Doe the trick. Good voor days with shorter skirts and no bathrooms around 😉
both gorgeous, I always like to see the difference in different weight fabrics can bring to a dress pattern. great reuse of those trousers!
I love your dresses !!! Both are nice and different !
I try one time to to my tight with your tuto, but… it wasn’t be tight at the end !!!!
lovely dress – and I love the different fabrics in the “muslin” You mentioned how many times you had worn something, according to your counter – Would you be willing to share how you keep track of what you wear?
thank you Martha! I keep an ootd (outfit of the day) blog, where I post a very quick picture of my outfit each day, and I also have a separate hardcopy list of all the clothing I own: at the end of each month I flick back through the month’s pictures on my ootd blog and update the tally of “wears” on my clothing list. I’ve been doing it for there years now, have the system down pat and it’s actually pretty quick and simple; and at the end of the year I really like seeing how often I wore everything. It’s really helped me hone on what I really prefer to wear so I can be more practical and efficient in my wardrobe planning.
Maybe it sounds a bit silly and complicated, but I just really love clothes and wardrobe analysis so I love it 🙂
I don’t make a lot of clothes that I wear, except for the silky 3/4 sleeve T-shirts – not really Ts but sort of???!! I need to work on that pattern so I can finish the others that I have fabric for. I could certainly list all the clothes in my closet and keep track of what I wear – bet if I did, 1/2-3/4 could go live in someone else’s closet! Time to empty it and start sorting, and make a list! There is probably a reason there are 8 pr of black pants?
Love both of these and the ‘trouser’ dress will look gorgeous in cold weather with knee high boots. Have you thought about ironing the front pleats in all the way down to the hem and top stitching the first couple of inches only? If you do it would look very vintage, like the factory dresses women wore for war work on the 40s.
Love your blog
Happy Anniversary! My husband & I also celebrated 29 years this year! Time to make big plans for next year! I love both of your dresses. The trouser Forsythe is very clever! I laughed at the photo of your tights compared with RTW. Sometimes I buy a much wider pair hoping that it will give me more vertical stretch!
Beautiful dresses. They all look great on you and fit you beautifully. Congratulations on your 29 year anniversary – many more!
These dresses are exquisite. I hope your dinner was as lovely as you looked!
I like both dresses! The floral is lovely, of course, but I also think that the color blocking effect on the refashioned dress is quite interesting! And wow, the length difference between your RTW and homemade tights is crazy!
Both dresses are lovely in very different ways. Congratulations on finding another lovely dress – and for staying married 29 years!
(I hit 39 this year – without burying him under the patio )
Happy anniversary!
You look lovely in both dresses. Ingeneous use of hubby’s old trousers!
*ingenious* Doh!
Firstly… Happy Anniversary! What an ethereal lovely photo to celebrate your anniversary dinner. Both dresses are lovely and seem so different than each other. I like them both for all their differentness!! 🙂
Happy Anniversary! I love both of your dresses…gorgeous as always!
Congratulations on your anniversary 🙂 You sewed and pocked a beautiful dress for this special occasion. The fabric is just perfect for the pattern, lovely how it drapes! That being said, I really like your pants version as well! I’ve been wanting to make a dress from old jeans since I saw your previous jeans dress here on the blog.
Your dresses are so pretty. What a great use of your husband’s old trousers, you’re so creative! Happy belated anniversary.
Your dresses are both stunning. It’s a brilliant idea to use old trousers. I’m also very impressed with the tights, not something I would have ever thought of making!
I find it hard to believe that these are from the same pattern. There’s something about the pants dress that makes me dizzy – with delight of course. It’s a men’s suit that took one too many loops around the calliope. Heh. Which I LOVE! I like the hang of it too. But the floral is also brilliant, for other reasons. So good.
Both dress versions are really lovely! 🙂
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I really like your trouser version of the dress. In fact I don’t like the pattern packet picture at all and yours looks comparatively most attractive. Florals are more my thing so of course I like that one too. Good job on both.