Oktoberfest Dress and a JOURNAL PAPER!

You guys my paper made the journal!!!! Stoked doesn't begin to cover it! I worked really hard over the summer and finally it was pulished today! I put a wee html link on the sidebar for anyone who is remotely interested - it gives you the abstract for the paper.

Oktoberfest dress - excuse teh awful angle I only had literally 2 mins to take these pics!

So because the paper was originally submitted to a conference and was subsequently accepted for journal, that means I get to present it...and it just so happens that I get to present it in the good ol' US of A!!!! woop! And I leave on Saturday and am headed to Cincinnati (with the rest of my team at work) - and judging by weather.com its still relatively warm in those parts.

So if youre still reading here comes the sewing part of this post! When looking for things that are going down in Cincinnati this weekend we stumbled accross Oktoberfest! Now I don't know about anyone else, but I feel that calls for a dress. So as is almost tradition now I named this dress The Oktoberfest Dress.

The fabric was the main reason I made a dress for the occasion - when I was in London earlier in the summer I picked this up on goldhawk road for about £5.99/m. It is a quilting cotton - made apparent by the weight of the fabric and is covered in loads of different beer bottles adn barrels and all things beer related - the selvage names the fabric 'Beer is best'

The heavyweight nature of the fabric is apparent when hanging coz it jutts out all over the shop!

This closeup of the fabric shows that i managed a very invisible zip which I was so proud of however the picture below shows how much that was necessary as the only zip I had to hand was BABY BLUE - theres barely any blue in the dress oops!

Also I really just wanted to add this picture because you get a really good close up of the print :-)

So the details: as probably guessed, this is the Christine Haynes Emery - I know I just shared this twice recently hwoever I think its a great pattern for showcasing a print and also in my limited time I had to put it together (Sunday and Monday evening) it was a pattern that I was confident that I would complete in time.

I love how the heavier fabric makes the skirt stick out :-)

 Unfortunately I don't think the colour really works with my skintone but thats not really the point to this dress...

If i had any idea on how to use photoshop believe me that barbequeue would be gone!!

So I think I have cracked the pattern for my measurements now - I added another fraction of a cm to each of the upper back darts and the back neckline now lies absolutely flush - the only other thing I might change is to topsttch the neckline (because I forgot to understitch).

Finally one last comment before I sign off for a couple of weeks - The Referendum. I don't really want to drag politics into my blog but its a huge deal and one that cannot be ignored. I'm voting yes. (and in no way force that opinion on anyone else) and I hope we get the result that me and so many others are so passionate about. I really hope we can as a country move forward in a positive manner. I don't dislike England - nor the people, (in fact I have family there) I just feel that it is our opportunity to safeguard our country from Westminster and a government that doesn't work for us. I'm happy to discuss my opinion too in a positive an non slanderous manner.

Take care guys  JCS xx

Completed: Emery Dress No. 2!

Hi!

I have just (read finished this last week but have been uber busy since) completed my second ' Singin in the Rain' Emery Dress! I have to say i think know this is my favourite me made item.I know I shared this one with you the other week however i'm far happier with how this version turned out and think the pictures turned out a little better too with tons more natural light! (however nextdoors mingin backgarden on the downside...)

I made a few alterations to the pattern from my last emery and I'm happy with how this one turned out.
The Changes:
- 3/4 inch narrow shoulder adjustment
- increased the width of the top back darts by 3/4 cm each side
- took a wedge out of the top at the back
- removed an inch from the length of the skirt
(- added 3/4 inch to the bodice, this change was made last time too)

Again I cut the size 8 and added the same 3/4" to the lengthen lines of the pattern. The first three changes were addressing the back gape from my last attempt at this dress and I think the gaping back is now almost eliminated. I say almost i think there is still about 3/4 of an inch left to remove before it lies ''just so". But hey ho I'm not bothered. Also I can't quite decide whether or not the front is now a little roomy as a result of moving the shoulders... i think the last time it lay a little flatter.... I have though made up some new pattern pieces with these changes on and im hoping that any additional tinkerings can be incorporated.
 

Skirt 'mushrooms' out really well :-)

 The fabric for this dress is actually a quilting cotton which i picked up in the remnant kings sale for £6.99/m. I picked up 3m of this (i think it was 45 inch wide) and after cutting out all the pieces including the lining I think I had about 30 cm left. (apologies for switching up the units). Compared to making up the last emery this time using a proper cotton made this a breeze! I only had one minor problem making this up and that was the zip slipped when i was stitching it in and so it doesn't quite match at the back. Again - its a small detail and i don't think that this detracts from the overall dress.

Close up of fabric

This time because i was working with slightly better quality fabric the waistline also slipstitched really neatly

The inside looks really neat (for once)

Clearly caught off guard here!

I actually wore this quite a bit that week - i finished it quickly coz we had friends coming and I wanted to wear the dress out in the park - we went to a favourite place of ours chatelherault which is a country park on the outskirts of Glasgow where the old hunting lodge built for the Dukes of Hamilton way back when has been restored! We love the squinty floor and the long walks in the woods.

Standing next to the restored fireplace in the old hunting lodge

Does anyone else wear dresses out for muddy park walks?

Our friends daughter wanted to climb Cadzow's Oaks which are 800 years old!

Have a good week folks

JCS

A Completed Emery Dress

I have joined the party!

Meet my latest make - Emery. I did make this a few weeks back so I have got a lot of wear out of this especially at the games and laterally at the festival. A little fox pas though - at the time of making this dress I did not realise how much it resembled the school tunic of Glasgow academy....

Outside St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh

So following in the footsteps of my philatelists dress, this is the Glasgow Academy dress. Usage strictly limited to weekends and halowe'en. Heh.

Lurking the close - Well as it is an emery I had to get a Dolly Clacket esque shot outside the door :p

I bought the fabric back in April at Sherringham market in the pretty Norfolk town where me and the other half went on holiday - to visit where he grew up. I'm not really sure what the composition is but I melted a little bit of the inner waistband when I was presing it so there's at least a good %age of polyester in there... it was also all kinds of stretchy which made it a pain to sew.

I've read a few places that the bodice of the emery was a little short and sure enough after making a muslin (:O:O:O (only of the bodice though)) that it was indeed a little short. I also didn't like how high the neckline sat so edited the pattern to remove a small slice starting at the botton of the shoulder and along to the centre front.

After adding a little bit of length at the lengthen/shorten lines allowed the bodice to hit my waist

I didn't fancy the bow or the collar so made up the dress with none of the options but made sure to keep the inseam pockets. Im not sure I could wear this style with no pockets they're so darn handy! They're the perfect size for keys and a phone (both were totally in my pockets while taking photos) and are so effortlessly hidden within the fabric of the skirt when you're wearing the dress.

there was a slight offset occurred when hand stitching the waist - im not gonna lie you can notice it when worn but meh the front looks good!!

I'm thinking the back of this dress is still a little broad so the next time I'm going to either make the top back darts a little bigger or maybe cut the size down and only use 1/2 inch seams - does anyone have any thoughts on this fitting issue?

Added bonus - the zip lined up!

I really like the pattern for this dress - it really lends itself to large prints so much so I have another one ready to go - once the back issue is sorted!

The only thing i would do differently next time is to shorten the hem by about an inch so I don't have to take such a large hem.

Has anyone else made up the emery dress?

Also while i'm here I have a couple of shots of the cat print bronte I posted last week

Another photo lurking around next to St Mary's

This one is a little far out but I think it's just possible to see that the fit is prety good.

A slightly closer shot the top is a little loose around the waist but then - thats how she wanted it!

Have a good week guys
JCS