Christmas Dress 2014

For this years Christmas dress I wanted to use a beautiful purple (I think cotton) velvet that my friends gave to me for my birthday. I had 1.5m which basically directed the design of the dress. I went for a strapless bodice, because it takes barely any fabric, with a half circle skirt which would give the fullness of a gathered skirt without the extra material needed. To make it special I added a little bow feature at the front.

The strapless bodice pattern is the same I used for my floral maxi dress, which made the whole process so much quicker because I knew it fit. I made sure I cut at all of the pieces so the nap was facing the right way. I slip-stitched the seam allowances on the velvet outer bodice down, because I didn't want to risk using an iron. The lining was the leftover rayon from my greek chiton purely because of the colour co-ordination. To make the rayon more stable I underlined it with quite a heavy calico. I then attached boning to the lining to give the bodice more structure.

The skirt is a half circle, with a seam at the centre front and back because that was the only way that if fit on the fabric. Hopefully the seam at the front isn't too noticeable! Ideally I would have made it a full circle for a little more volume, but a petticoat underneath does provide a certain amount of poof. The dress is fastened with an invisible zip down the center back, and the hem was overlocked and turned over once to preserve as much length as possible.

For the bow I used a rectangle of velvet which was sewn into the top seam at the front and back, not not the sides when joining the bodice and the lining. The part that wasn't attached in the seam I can slip my arms into to form little wings. I was going to elasticate the top so they would be level with the neckline but I don't know. I quite like the drapy-ness that's happening. The center was then ruched up to form a bow.

I'm really happy with how this dress turned out. It's miles better (both with the fit and finish) than last years Christmas dress. Now I need to figure out what I've got to do next year to better this one!

Thanks very much for reading and to Ed for taking the pictures!
Lauren xx

Bright Floral Dress

In the last few months I've been applying to various universities to do a degree in costume production (the making side of things). Over the next couple of months I have to bring a portfolio to each uni for an interview. Obviously I needed a new dress. I went for perhaps one of the brightest fabrics I own (excepting the orange penguins, but I do want to be taken seriously at interviews) so I'll perhaps be easier to remember as the girl with the bright floral dress. 

I went for a simple fit and flare shape to show the amazing fabric off to it's best advantage. One of the uni's I visited is right next to Goldhawk Road so of course I dragged Dad over there and I bought 1.5 metres of this gorgeous wool blend.

 I used my block for the bodice and a pleated skirt from the simplicity 4070 dress pattern. I cut both the front and back bodice's on the fold so the dress is fastened with an invisible zip at the side seam. I wanted to line the bodice which I usually do because it takes care of the neckline and arm-scythes so nicely but I wasn't sure how to do it without a centre back seam. Luckily a quick google yielded this great tutorial and I had no problems.

 I'm so so happy with the way it fits and the length and everything, and I'm looking forward to wearing it to my interviews! (First one on wednesday, arrghhh!)

Thanks for reading, and to Ed for taking photos!
Lauren xx

Grey Suit Part 3: The Dress

All parts of my suit are finally done! Yaay! I wanted the final part to be a dress with a full skirt so I could move around freely in drama lessons. I don't know whether you've tried doing drama or sitting cross legged on the floor wearing a pencil skirt, but I can tell you now that it doesn't work very well. 

The design of the dress was dictated entirely by how much, or rather how little fabric I had left after the blazer and the skirt. I was determined to have a reasonably full skirt so I went with a half circle. The bodice is princess seamed because the pattern pieces took up less space than my darted bodice block. It was a heavily altered vogue 2370 dress which I just cut off at the waist used for my robin hood costume here and stardust costume here.

 The center front did have to have a vertical and horizontal seam, as did the back. Everything was overlocked, and the arm and neck holes finished with bias binding. The hem was overlocked and turned over once and the dress is fastened with an invisible zip.

It'll be good to wear with tights and shirts underneath for the winter months and without for the summer months so hopefully it'll be a really versatile piece.

Thanks very much for reading and to Ed for taking pictures, JUST before it got too dark.
Lauren xx

Deconstruction Fashion using mens shirts

 My latest textiles project was  to make a piece of clothing from pieces of existing clothing, known as deconstruction fashion. Aspects of the original garments should remain. To start, I removed all of the collars and cuffs from several old men’s shirts. The cuffs were set aside for later. I buttoned 2 contrasting collars together and placed them at the waist of the mannequin to form a waistband. They were overlapped at the back which formed interesting geometric shapes with the points of the collars. I placed another 2 collars underneath, making a waistband which unbuttons at the front consisting of 4 collars from different shirts.

 Next I ripped all of the shirt backs, from the shirt and sewed them together side seam to side seam. I kept the hems of the original shirts which gave varied shaped hem lengths. The long line of shirt backs was then gathered at the top and sewn to the collar waistband to form a skirt.

I took a left front and right front piece from contrasting shirts and buttoned them together, pinning them to the mannequin. The shoulder seams were gathered tightly to form straps, resulting in a V neck. Strips of fabric were braided together which formed straps at the back and also down the side of the bodice, giving a bit of detail to the ensemble.

I think the final garment looks wearable which is good if you want to sell your products. I am also glad that you can still see the origins of the shirt in the waistband of the skirt. The quality of stitching is not very good, and isn’t very stable which could be improved with a bigger timescale. The front bodice wrinkles as a result of poor fit, which maybe darts could improve. Overall I'm really happy with it. I felt like I was on project runway while making it and I had so much fun!

Thanks for reading and to Ed for the photos!

Lauren xx

A Lace Francoise

A friend of mine is having a 20's inspired party for her birthday, and obviously I wanted to make a dress for it. It would be inspired by the 20's but with a bit more shape because that's how I like my dresses to fit. Cue Tilly's new sewing pattern Francoise. Although the party is in March (I know...) I wanted to get cracking on the dress now in time for the competition and Mum's birthday meal!

The original design was for a scallop hemmed overdress with a flounce sewn to the lining which would show underneath the overdress. This didn't quite work out so I had to go to plan B, as illustrated colourfully below.

I had lots of excess in the bust area of my first muslin, and the darts were too low down.

I unpicked the darts and moved them higher up and hey presto, it fit!

I choose to make my Francoise with a beautiful gold lace found in a vintage charity shop (5 pounds for about 2 metres) paired with a red underlining. Even though it's quite a simple dress to make, the time it took me to make it was doubled due to basting the lace together to the underlining to make sure nothing shifted around. Below you can see me starting off that process in costa before school with a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. Obviously by the time I got round to taking the pic, the cream and marshmallows were long gone.

I then sewed the dress together and scalloped the hem in accordance with the lace pattern, as seen in the pic below.

As seen in the design above, it didn't work with the flounce attached to the lining so I evened out the hem and attached the flounce to the outer layer instead. This, however made all the proportions wrong.

To fix this I took a chunk out of the seam where the dress hem and the flounce met and now it's just the right length!

Being a bit strapped for cash at the moment, I salvaged a burgandy invisible zip from a prom dress that we found in a charity shop a couple of years ago that never fit right.

This dress makes a nice change from my usual fit and flare silhouette. I can see more happening in the future.

Thank you very much for reading and to Ed for taking the pictures!

Lauren xx