Category: dress

dress, fail, sewing

Self-drafted bodice dress

christinahopgood
So I have been really enjoying Dolly Clackett’s blog – her dresses are always made of gorgeous fabric, with a fitted bodice and full skirt.  I wanted one too!
First I made myself and Elisalex bodice to see if it would fit – and – it didn’t.  Not at all!  The shoulders fell off, the bust was baggy, it was AWFUL.  So I drafted a bodice for myself using a book I had.  The book is from the 60s and has errors in it!  Annoying!
I traced the neckline of the Elisalex dress and combined it with my own bodice block.  It still didn’t turn out that well!  I feel as though it’s baggy in some places and tight in others and I’m not sure what to do next.  The skirt is just a box-pleated rectangle, and I edged it with some broderie anglaise.
This dress does look ok with a petticoat, cardigan, and heels.
I also put in a waistband, which may have been my main mistake.  It looks like it made the bodice too long for my body.
It does have one pocket!  Just one.  WHY.
Bias binding armholes – yes this is an armhole not some random body part.
My “invisible” zip – gosh I suck at them.
Ummm thanks for looking?  It’s a weird dress and I’m not sure whether I’ll wear it.  Failure is the first step on the road to success, or something.
I’m going to enter this dress in the Sew Dolly Clackett competition but I have very very low hopes for winning!  But as they say, you’ve got to be in it to win it.
colette, culottes, dress, sewing

Completed – Tania Culottes AND Hawthorn Dress!

christinahopgood
Double whammy coming at ya!

I made another pair of Megan Nielsen’s Tania culottes!  This one I love the best.  The fabric is light and flowy, the length is perfect for me, love love love.
The fabric is a beautiful thin brushed cotton, which I bought at St Vinnie’s in Braidwood on our way home from the coast a couple of months ago.  It sounds nuts but I buy a lot of fabric at op shops, they often have a big yardage and the fabric is usually lovely quality.  You can get some cute retro prints too.
 But!  Observe!  The fabric has stretched on the bias, leaving me with long bits at the sides!
 I’ve never been one to leave a garment hanging to even out the hem, because I always want to wear it out immediately.  In this garment’s case, I needed to wear it to Adelaide the next day.
So I ended up with kind of wonky culottes.  I don’t think you notice much, but I learned my lesson.  Next time I deal with a pattern that’s so circular, I’ll leave it to hang overnight at least!

 Which brings me to my next project out of the same fabric!  I had a bunch left over and made another Colette Hawthorn dress!
 I am pretty amazed I got another entire dress out of this fabric.  I have to admit some of my layout was a bit creative, so I have some upside-down pieces etc, but you don’t notice with this busy print.
It looks like I have a bit of bias stretch on this too.  Flipping heck.
 I made this in a super hurry because I wanted to wear it to teach in last week.  But I think I’m getting quicker and better at this pattern – it all came together well.
 My only alterations were to make it slightly shorter and do a teeny-tiny hem (fabric constraints), and I made the back facing longer.  On my other one it keeps popping up, but just a bit longer and it stays put.
I like it with a belt.  The buttons were kind of expensive at $1.30 each at Lincraft – but I got one extra since there was only 1 left in the tube after she counted them out.  Bargain??  Not really since I didn’t need it.
It’s a bit hard to see but I made belt loops using needle lace.  It’s easy, you just make a few loops where you want it and then blanket stitch around the threads the whole way accross.
I wore it four days in a row teaching.  But that’s okay, because I teach a different schools.  Nobody knew I was recycling my outfit!!
dress, frocktober

Saturday, Frocktober the 5th! Blue vintage dress

christinahopgood
Today’s dress is one I got from the Canberra Vintage Fashion Fair earlier this year.  I think it’s vintage 2008 though, not *real* vintage.  Unfortunately the pattern is so bright you can’t really see the nice design of the dress – but it has skirt pleats!
Today Charles and I went out and looked at houses.  There were 4 open houses this morning.  We’re not seriously considering buying a house just yet though!  But it was a bit of fun.
One can dream right? 
This necklace was my nana’s, my mum’s mum (I think).  I often think of her while I wear it!
dress, frocktober

Friday, Frocktober the 4th! Modcloth’s Indie Darling Dress

christinahopgood
It’s FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOTTA GET DOWN ON FRIDAY!
 Today’s dress is Modcloth’s Indie Darling dress. This is the first thing I ever bought from Modcloth, and it started a long and glorious relationship with the website. Unfortunately this dress was (and still is) much too big for me really – the armholes hang down, the lace neckline is scandalously low, and it’s generally baggy.  It looks ok here, but let me tell you it is loose.  It’s also a pain to iron, all those fiddly shoulder bits!  Incidentally the cardigan is also from Modcloth but it’s gone now.
Today I’m going to go to my parents’ house and do some sewing with mum.  I’m helping her finish a jacket she started making about 4 years ago.  We started yesterday and almost finished the outer shell, today we’re doing the lining.
I realise now that I’m wearing my tights backwards and you can see the heels at the front of my ankles. Just pretend you didn’t see.
And appropriately, my necklace has sewing shears, a thread spool, and a safety pin!  I got this necklace in a cute shop in Sydney (can’t remember the name)… such fun!

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.