Originally I bought this lovely magnolia print fabric to make something else… but ended up making this random frock instead. Spring was coming…and I really wanted something romantic and floral. I sorta couldn’t picture anything properly, there were false starts… then Mum, Cassie and I had planned another trip to Melbourne this year, to go to the Dior exhibition at the NGV and I became enamoured of something old-fashioned, feminine, of an easy-wearing, pfouffy skirt. So this is me, realising that. I feel a bit like an old-fashioned housemaid, like Cinders before the pumpkin, or an Arthur Rackham-illustrated Alice.
This is all good 🙂
I thought I would get a nice picture of my dress at the Dior exhibition… but do you think I did?! nope! I wore it, but well, Mum, Cassie and I were so busy looking at all the delightful Dior, listening to our audio and ooh-ing and aah-ing so I didn’t even think about it!! however I did notice a few days later that my dress was serendipitously a lovely colour/design complement to the floor in the NGV.
You just have to picture it on there!
Fabric; a stretch cotton sateen from Spotlight. I went to considerable trouble to make sure the magnolias are scattered randomly and unevenly across the dress with no discernible pattern repeats … even laying the pattern pieces down upside down sometimes so as to avoid too much same-ness.
Pattern; Vogue 1317, a Chado Ralph Rucci design. I have made this pattern exactly once before, here. I loved that dress and wore it a lot; but the tight underarm issue due to the unusual seaming with gusset and the cut-on, close-fitting sleeve arrangement, that I discussed in that post, turned out to be quite annoying after all. You might love the style of a thing, but if it’s uncomfortable then there comes a time where you’re like; why am I wearing this?? … and at one point I had one of those kon-mari urges to do a whirlwind clean out. I read a good tip somewhere… can’t remember where… that a good way to do a quick clean out of a closet or wardrobe that was stressing you out due to vague feelings of having Too Much Stuff was to walk up to it and just immediately and spontaneously pick out ten things to throw away,right then and there. You’re not supposed to spend more than, say five or ten seconds thinking about each thing… but just a gut reaction; do I love this? or not really? Because honestly, you know in your heart the answer to that question already and not allowing yourself time to talk yourself out of it does make the process of jettisoning rubbish a lot easier. Trust me, it does.
So, out it went. In my opinion the importance of using a stretchy fabric for this pattern should be printed in large bold letters across the front of the envelope. It’s absolutely fine in a stretch fabric. Well, of course it is! Everything’s fine in a stretch fabric!!
the ability to lift your arms up comfortably is always a plus
Mods:
1) I left off all the double topstitching for a clean stitch-less look, finishing off the hemline with bias-cut white voile… I also left off the giant birthday-present bow that ties in the middle of your tummy. I thought about cutting it longer and wrapping and tying it at the back like I did with my first version, but really the print makes this dress pretty busy enough already, without a belt-y thing as another visual distraction.
2) I shifted the pockets out towards the side seams by about 4cm, just like I did with my first version… you can just tell the pockets are situated way too close to the centre front, just by looking at that cover shot.
3) and most obviously; I wasn’t happy with the dress how it is here in its intended short version; in fact at this point I took a violent dislike to it and almost abandoned it completely. A few weeks of despondency passed by, and I was thinking about the Dior exhibition coming up, which let me to think of the Dior shape, which in turn inspired me to add the long ruffle/frill around the bottom…. I used leftover fabric from which I cut random “doughnut segments” and “pieces of pie” shapes, joined them together to make a giant, sorta fluted doughnut… and attached this to a white cotton voile skirt lining
I felt a lot better about the dress after this.
So I’ve worn it several times now… hmmm there I go, wearing things before blogging them, again!! Oh, I also decided to permanently stitch the collar flaps down inside to make it a V-neck. I just like this look better than the high slit front, in this particular fabric. Not quite so prim and proper.
The good thing about wearing something before blogging it is that I can, at least report on how it feels out in the wild, so to speak. I’ve worn it on the beach, to walk my dog, to do housework and the shopping… as well as in amongst the divine Dior. And I’m happy to say that the delightfully feminine swishiness afforded to me by this dress indeed sparked much joy in my heart, rendering it safe from kon-mari-ing, at least for a while!
Details:
Dress; modified Vogue 1371, in stretch sateen
Shoes (above); made by me and my own design, details here
Hmmm, a totally unromantic, slightly ridiculous and definitely a whaaaat?! title for a dress but to my mind it was just the obvious choice! See, when we knew Clara was coming along I looked out Sienna’s old dog mattresses (yes, doing this did evoke lots of feels) so as to re-cover them for the new arrival… I had a teeny bit of green upholstery fabric left from a previous re-upholstering job, enough for the smallest mattress, but needed some more for the other two, much bigger mattresses. So off I hopped to Spotlight and bought some lovely bright yellow cotton canvas… our current lounge room colour scheme is all wood, white, neutrals and with spots of yellow and obviously the most important thing about dog beds is that they co-ordinate nicely with not just your dog but the decor too… 😉
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.
I’m wearing a new … thing. Is it a dress? Dungarees? An overall…? we used to call these pinafores. Or a pinny. I think it’s pretty cute anyway 🙂
Seems like aaaages since I was at the beach for these photos! and I can remember it was a glorious 30C that day. Right now it’s still sunny but getting pretty nippy here in Perth; and joyously frolicking in the surf in a tiny little dress is kinda out of the question. SO GLAD I was super-organised and pre-did my little photo shoot! Anyway, here is this cute and very summery little dress I made a few months ago.
Details:
I’ve made this new dress! every year my dear friends give me a Fabulous Fabrics voucher for my birthday… it’s taken me a little while but I finally got around to spending it and making my birthday dress!
Pattern; Vogue 1351, this is my third version of this pattern, 
I wore it for the first time today! along with my scarlet Miette cardigan, to show it to my lovely girlfriends who had given me the voucher… 🙂
Pattern; the Sudley by Megan Nielsen patterns, I gathered up the sleeve hems with skinny elastic, like I had done for 
The design is beautifully breezy and very comfortably roomy… I love the cute little cut-on sleeves with a simple cuff, the petite collar has prettily feminine proportions, and the exaggerated lower hemline looks quite dramatic and really cool, imo. That one big box pleat in the back is fabulous, and a pretty dramatic feature too, yes? love how the folds balloon out and down to that gently shaped back hemline. In fact I love all the features and the shape of the dress, full stop. It’s like the perfect little summer shirt-dress. I’m going to wear this one a tonne, for sure, and and probably going to make a tonne more too!
