Completed: Sewing Dare!

Hello lovely people.

Thanks you so much for your kind words of support after my last post. Today I finally have the chance to share with you my sewing dare! Back in April I signed up for a dare over at craftingarainbow and was dared to make a maxi dress for the festival that I went to the other week. Well I made it! and it was finished before the original end-of-may deadline...but then life happened and I never got around to sticking it up on here :-(

Then the weather at the festival was so bad that I only managed to wear my dress for breakfast one morning :-( However I have what I think is a nice dress! On to the glorious details :-D

The fabric was this awesome yet slippery viscose purchased in Remnant Kings I bought around 4m because at the time of buying fabric I had no idea what form my maxi would take so went with more than I could need just in case. I pre-washed the fabric and think I even put it in the dryer because there was just so much of it and it was taking over the flat!

I eventually decided to go with the Anna bodice and the skirt was just a gathered rectangle. I really like the skirt for the Anna too but I was puched for time before the holiday and did not want the hassle of retracing the maxi length skirt. My only regrets on the skirt is that I didnt use more rectangles - the skirt is only WOF x1 so long steps are problematic. I think i'm going to go back and add a slit at the bottom to aide walking!

In terms of the bodice I made it up exactly as I did for my monthly stitch Anna - although as it was a slippier fabric didnt worry too much about getting the bodice too true to size as I wanted a looser dress for if we EVER get a summer here in Glasgow. I'm on the verge of buying some posters of a beach closing the curtains and ramping up the heating and pretending that I'm in spain! haha

The zip I chose was a lace zipper custom cut from mandors. I was really unsure of what zip would work best with this fabric, I initially bought an invisible zip however reckoned that it made the fabric a bit stiff and didn't flow as nicely as it should - I also considered a lapped zipper but then something in the back of my mind vetoed that idea. Retrospectively it should have been a lapped zip.

So I hope everyone is having a great weekend - John is off to Limavady in NI today so in his absence I have grand plans to tidy the flat! *Ahem*

Take care
Jenn xx

Completed: By Hand London Anna Dress

Back in April last year I backed By Hand London's kickstarter campaign and the other weekend while I felt really ill with my kidney infection I got the best delivery ever: a box full of patterns pins and fabric! This lifted my mood no end as I have been itching to try some of their patterns since last year when I backed them!

Before I got the delivery I had in my mind that I wanted to try the Elizalex dress first, however on a complete whim I picked the Anna pattern out of the box and traced it all out.

Lets talk about the fabric. I picked up this 3 m length of lightweight cotton from a recent trip to Ikea for the pricely sum of £10. The pink parts of the pattern were white before the prewash however a red top somehow made it into the same wash cycle...

Strange sporran esque print!

Due to my measurements I sit just above the finished sizes for a UK 14/ US 10 -so because this is the size I cut for my Kim muslin (and intended on using 1/2 inch seams however managed to use the full 5/8 seam) this is the size that I cut here too. I notionally glanced through the sewalong for the dress and spied that there was a lined version of the dress. I'm not hugely keen on facings so opted for the V-necked lined version of the dress.

The pin showing where the zip lies.

In a bold move, I inserted the zip without really checking if i would require to take the neckline in, however as it is an alteration I make on every garment I brass necked it and took the back neck in by 1.5 inches on either side and the results were perfect!

If you can get past the print the fit is really great

 I really must admit. I get the hype. Before I was a little skeptical over the BHL Anna and weather I actually liked it but this dress is so flattering and the fit is so good straight off the pattern sheets. This dress was initially only going to be a muslin however it initially fit so well I couldn't see it go to waste and there marks the start of the Dylon drama!

I  had a right headache with this fabric and where to place the print, I'm not 100 % sold on the print either. One of the main problems was that lining up wrong on the CF skirt would have left me with a sporran.... I tried a few different placements with the different pattern pieces as I didn't have enough of it to properly match the print. In fact in the end I loved the print so much I went and bought Dylon.

 Print hell this was! The placement and just the overall pattern of the fabric looked plain bad.

No gapey nackline :-D

I realised that because it was a big print with multiple colours that the dye may not take well so tried bleaching it. After two rounds of bleaching the colour of the dress was no different apart from a few faded patches and I had read that bleaching destroys the fibres of the fabric :-(.

However 2 dyes later I have a wearable dress! I finished a little early today so I tried to get some photos in what was left of the light...

I only realised that this has been ongoing for so long when I saw the photos and had had an interim haircut...

An outtake - I think someone came in the close at this point!

I must admit there are a few thngs I would tweak on this dress however nothing ~major. If I make this dress up again I definately will have to take some length out of the skirt - I cut out about an inch after I tried it on and even then took a huge hem. In addition I think i will also take an inch out of the waist - i prefer a slightly more snug fit. The final alteration I will make is to omit the sporran print fabric. I much prefer the black...

Has anyone else made up the Anna with the lining? I really prefer linings over facings I think the finish is so much neater.

Have a good week folks :-)

Jen xx