FINISHED! Teal Butterflies

There seems to be a few pieces of fabric that take the sewing web by storm and we all snaffle it up, especially since the rise of instragram!  In 2013, it was this fabric, late last year it was pineapples and this year this amazing piece of ponti from Tessuti seems to have found its way into many many a shopping cart.  Clearly I'm a bandwagon jumper and I bought 1.75m of the fabric in late February.

I don't think the fabric is available anymore but it was Stretch butterfly teal (Italian 65% Viscose 30% Polyamide 5% Elastane digital printed ponti knit. Width:145cm).  I bought it because I was immediately reminded of Valentino and the vast array of beautiful butterfly dresses like this one below.

VALENTINO Butterfly Print Babydoll Dress courtesy of Polyvore

I love the work of Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli for this house. If I were ever to buy a couture dress I would be hard pressed to go past Valentino. Like fashion, I can be fickle but I only loved them more with the recent surprise appearance of Ben Stiller and the Owen Wilson at their latest runway show in Paris. Anyway, I digress.

With my eyes on the Valentino dress as inspiration I revisited my Frocktails 2014. I thought this was a good shell but thought I might gather the skirt.  I used the skirt from the Moneta which I bought especially so that I could use the skirt pattern.  Honestly, I've never done so much unpicking as I did on this dress. It is ridiculous given how simple the dress is.

I retraced the original bodice pieces and removed all the seam allowance to get a tighter fit.  After attaching the skirt to the bodice I felt that it still needed slimming so I took a wedge of 1 inch off the sides. I think it could still be a better fit but it's good enough. I have minor regret on the gathered skirt as I didn't really have enough fabric to do it justice and the front is more gathered than the back. Let's call it a design feature. I also feel that sometimes it falls a bit heavy. I like my waists to sit high.  I'm not sure how to fix that. I tried a bit of elastic in the waist seam but it does feel like a waste of sewing (and unpicking!).

The neck, wrist and hem are all turned over once and finished with a twin needle.  The back is closed with an invisible zip.  Sorry, I didn't bother to pattern match at the back. I kept the hem longer than I had originally envisaged.  I'm still thinking about it, but it does provide a bit more flexibility at this length, though I do like to get the pins out.

Despite all the mumbling during this post I am happy with how it turned out. But I'm mighty glad that it's done! I've got a wedding to go to next weekend, so this will be getting a run in the wild!

Oh and while we are on the topic of fancy dresses, CBR sewing crew are hosting a wonderful Frocktails event on the 27 June. All the details can be found here.  I won't be wearing this dress but I will be making up something fab to wear. Hope to see a lot of you there!  The venue is truly stunning and shows just how much Canberra has to offer.

FINISHED! Coco in a spotty ponte

My eldest Oliver has piano just near Addicted to Fabric on a Saturday for half an hour, which is just the perfect amount of time for a quick dash in for thread or zippers or needles and to see what new fabric there is.  Last week on such a dash for needles I came across this luscious Italian Ponte: ever so slightly ribbed (very very thin), navy (yes!) and with spots.  Well, there wasn't any way I was leaving that behind and I knew that Tilly's new pattern, Coco, which had been swimming around in my subconscious was going to be bought just as soon as we got home. And so it was bought.

I stuck the pattern together on Thursday night, cut it out and sewed it up a bit on Friday and finished it on Saturday.  I made the funnel neck top version as I only had 1.2 metres, though this would look great as the dress option.  Ben keeps asking me to make more as he adores this make on me and was just suggesting this afternoon the different colourways I could have! I'd love to make one with a slightly bigger funnel or maybe the next make will be the boat neck version.

I cut out a straight size 2 and it fits like a glove.  More fitted than I thought it would be but it is very flattering. The instructions are for a normal machine, so I just went with that instead of sewing straight up on my overlocker, using the stretch stitch on my machine rather than the zig zag stitch for the sides.  I used the zigzag stitch for securing the funnel seam and the cuff seam though. All the seams are then pressed open so it has a fabulous 'flat' feeling on the sides. Love this!

I used the overlocker to tidy up all the seams - though of course it wasn't necessary but it's just felt more finished somehow. 

There isn't really much else to say on this. I took my time, even though it was relatively simple and I really like the results.  The pattern is lovely, it is so comfy to wear and that ponte is just so divine I might need to buy more! Tilly is having a Coco Party on the 21st March.  Are you joining in?