Author: christinahopgood

dress, frocktober

Thursday, Frocktober the 3rd! Black Review dress.

christinahopgood
Today I wore a dress from my favourite clothes shop – Review!  
It was rainy outside when I wanted to take photos so breakfast table shot!  It was cold today so boots FTW!
I wear this dress to perform when there is a loose “concert black” instruction, it has tiny white dots but nobody can see that in an audience.  I really like the way this dress looks, but the reason I don’t wear it much is that the waist seam is too tight, and not stretchy!  It hasn’t bothered me too much today though, so I might wear it more often now.
Lastly, my new favourite necklace.  My brother and sister-in-law gave me this for my birthday.  It’s a turtle with little sapphires on his shell.  I called him the great A-Tuin. I thought I’d lost him but found him yesterday, I was so happy!

Donate to my Frocktober cause – the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation.
frocktober

Wednesday, Frocktober 2nd! Black spotty dress!

christinahopgood
This dress was in my “hard to wear” pile.  That’s because it has shirring all across the midsection which I find a bit tight and annoying.  It’s like someone’s hugging me all the time.
 But after a whole day of wearing it I don’t notice it any more!  Hopefully this dress can be in high rotation after Frocktober, because I really enjoyed wearing it today.  It’s quite short (for me, short is anything above the knee), but I felt cute!
diy, frocktober

Tuesday, Frocktober the 1st! Hand-dyed sundress.

christinahopgood
Today on the first day of Frocktober, I’m wearing a very old dress from Tree of Life that I dyed yesterday!  Here’s a link to my last Frocktober when I wore it.
 This is the dress before I dyed it.  Very faded in weird patterns!  The skirt was white with interesting yellow, purple, red, and black patterns.

 I used some Rit dye I got an Lincraft to dye my very faded patchy dress a nice strong wine colour!

The Rit dye is a powder which you put into hot water and then soak your fabric for 30 minutes.  I also added a white singlet top that has been getting discoloured…
 Once dried this is what it looked like!  Turned out pretty nice!
 And here’s my “white” singlet top.  The only thing that didn’t take the dye at all was the polyester thread, which is annoyingly apparent.  It’s weird how the lace turned out a slightly different colour, but I guess it’s a different fibre content.
 And then I went to the op shop!  I bought the following: a KnitWit pattern for a jumper, and two stretch dresses.  They’re both too big, but that’s okay because I’m going to use them for UNDERPANTS!
How was your first day of Frocktober?  
frocktober

Frocktober starts tomorrow!

christinahopgood
Oh my goodness you guys!  It’s nearly Frocktober time and I can’t believe how fast the year has gone!

Here is my Frocktober page where you can donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund!  Every time you do an ovary says thankyou!

I have had a look at all my dresses and sorted them into categories: work appropriate, not work appropriate, and hard to wear.  Unsurprisingly, all of my Lolita dresses fall into the last category.  Here’s my list (a lot of the names are things only I’d understand):


Work appropriate:

Luck be a lady dress in red

Luck be a lady dress in purple
Luck be a lady dress in green
Luck be a lady dress in dots
Luck be a lady dress in blue dots
Luck be a lady dress in scholar
Luck be a lady dress in potpourri
Grey dress similar to Luck be a lady dress
Blue “vintage” dress
Red black tartan
Purple Soda fountain dress
Red and blue hearts dress
Green tartan dress from Felt
Pink spots dress from Felt
Perth floral pink dress
Cue polkadot dress
Colette Hawthorn
Fireside glow

Not work appropriate :
Tree of life dyed dress
Garlic dress
Old brown dress
Indie darling
Galaxy dress

Hard to wear: 
Review dress red
Review dress black
Cue black dress
VM adele
Vm British check
VM ribbon stripe
Etc dress
Melche shutilforc dress
Silk cherubims
Spotty black tight dress

A lot of the “hard to wear” dresses are too tight or too frilly.  Some of the “work inappropriate” dresses are just worn out!  And most of my work dresses are Luck Be A Lady.  My plan is to wear the “hard to wear” and “work inappropriate” dresses when I’m on holidays, for the next two weeks.  Just making things easy for myself!
I have some dresses I’m planning to sell, so obviously I’m not including them in my Frocktober!  Also, I hope to make some more dresses which I’ll wear instead of something on this list.  Hopefully, by the end of the month I’ll know which dresses I want to toss out!  This list has more than 31 dresses in it, so I’ll skip some of course.  And I’ll try to save the best til last!!
All ready to go!

buttons, dress, sewing

Completed: Colette Hawthorn

christinahopgood
Breaking news: Christina has sewn a garment that is not only pretty, but also fits comfortably!
I present the Colette Hawthorn dress, view 3 (sleeveless)!
My fabric is a lightweight seersucker which is a vintage gift from a church friend.  She was getting rid of lots of fabric she hadn’t used in 30 years.  I only had about 2 metres!
I was so careful making this, since my last attempt at making a dress was a total disaster.  I made a toile, pressed after every step, and even made a copy of the pattern so I didn’t cut into the precious tissue.  I laundered my fabric first:
I was so careful doing all the marking.  The only issue I had was that this fabric pattern does have a right way up, and I didn’t have enough fabric to cut it all out the right way.  I had to cut the back skirt pieces upside-down, but you totally can’t notice unless you scrutinise the thing, and you’d have to look at my butt to do that.  So my issue isn’t an issue at all!
My toile worked out pretty well, a shame it was a) covered in paint, and b) completely see-through.  It had a pretty pink floral pattern, very subtle.
 I was so frightened of doing the buttonholes, as I have never done them on my machine before.  They turned out pretty well!  I didn’t get them quite in the same place as on the pattern, but it was pretty darn close!  I spent a long time making sure I was putting the buttons in the right place too.
 Looks cute with a belt.  I’m thinking of making a waist tie with the remaining fabric (which is scraps, I’d have to sew a lot of them together).
 All these photos are with a very small petticoat which has lost most of its poof.
 My only complaint about the pattern is that the armholes are way small.  I made a size 0 with no alterations and I have very slim arms.  Not slim enough!  They’re not uncomfortably tight, but I could use a slightly looser armhole so that I can, you know, reach for stuff.
The collar was kind of difficult – not the collar itself but the facing and all that bulk at the shoulder seams.  I just pressed the heck out of it to make it sit flat, but I can still feel the bulk.
 My bias binding on the armholes is a cute striped one my mother in law gave me.  I love the subtle contrast!
As you can see it hangs pretty well!
So I’m thrilled with this dress.  It’s actually my first dress to work really well.  I’ve made other dresses but they’ve all sucked in one way or another.  I can’t wait to try view B (elbow length sleeves) as well!