In a shop window that I walked past most of summer there was a poster of a floral dress with a solid border on the hem that I was drawn to – not the dress as much as it was a mullet that went much too high in the front and way too long in the back. 

But you get the idea...

Unfortunately the only pic I can find of it is not that great…sorry. But the colour combo did inspire me to cut out Style 3394 view 1 in a similar style – by similar I mean that I had a slightly tropical green fabric and blue borders. 

Style 3394

I bought this green “tropical” print a couple of years ago with the thought to make a summer dress – in a slightly tacky but kind of fun way.  I have no idea what I paid but knowing me it would have been on special – most likely on the discount shelf for the very reason I bought it – cause it’s a little garish.

The pattern I got mostly likely from an op-shop for about a dollar and as I went to lay out the pieces I realised it was a size 12 – which I am not, so going off the measurements on the pattern sleeve and my actual size I did a bit of a hack job on the pattern in the hope that it would fit…  I have since learnt this is an actual method to draft up a pattern called the cut and slash method.

Tropical at the end of March

When I began construction I realised that the plan in my head for the blue bands at the top of the bodice was different from the pattern instructions.  And I had only cut out enough pieces for my plan so again I ignored the instructions and made the bodice my way.  I made the bands fold over the top of the bodice rather than being a solid band all the way round.

The skirt is a semi circle skirt and when I cut it out I did not have quite enough width so I added small triangles at the bottom.  With the wide band at the bottom you barely notice these small additions especially when you twirl in it.

The is a concept out there about cake sewing and frosting. Cake being the basics and frosting being the fluffy, flowery and frippery pieces. I first heard about it on Lilacs and Lace Blog. I think this cream lace dress is definitely not a cake dress but lots of frosting. The pattern is Butterick 5738 that I used to make my Going Green dress.

I got the fabric for this dress from a fabric warehouse sale a few years ago. I wasn’t sure what I was going to make at the time so I got 3m of the cream lace and the linen (i think that is what it is – it maybe a blend) that goes underneath.

Pretties

Thankfully lace dresses are still a trend so I haven’t missed the boat completely. I fully lined the bodice with the linen as well so there were 5 layers of material to deal with when attaching the bodice and skirt.

Lots of layers of fabric

I had a nightmare putting the zip in this dress due to all the layers and I ended up re-doing it more than once with much basting and swearing. But it was worth it.

I love it!

After feeling blah with 3 dresses on hangers inthe sewing room, I decided to go down a different path and I found confidence.  I have a favourite black dress I bought from Rebound Clothing a few years ago and I have always wanted to make my own version of it.  It is a simple A-line skirt with a bat-wing top and it is one of my few items of plain black clothing.

Dress ready for tracing

  I asked around about how to take a copy of it without destroying it and I was pointed in a couple of directions.  The first was the blog a fashionable stitch and a book from the library called Patternmaking for a perfect fit by Steffani Lincecum.  The book was not available but as I want to increase my skills I ordered it from Book Depository.  Another resource was the tutorial online by Juliet of Crazy Gypsy Chronicles which was immensely helpful.

So I decided to give it a go and I ended up with 4 basic pattern pieces – a front top, back top, skirt and cuff.  I got 2 metres of this voile with feather print for $23 and I managed to layout my pieces to fit it all on.  I also cut out some strips to do binding around the neckline.

Pattern pieces and fabric

By the end of the evening I had this…

Confidence

I put a light interfacing in the cuffs and finished all the seams with the overlocker.  I plan to wear it with a belt (as I do with the original) to give it a bit more shape.  So here is the badly light, taken indoors, with ick hair photo as I ran upstairs to show hubby what I had made.  Then I saw the photo and nipped back down to halve the width of the neck binding.

Yay I can sew

But overall I like it and already have the fabric lined up for another.  I think this time with an obi belt to go with it.

How do people come up with cool names for their dresses?  I have no idea and am way too literal hence the Jade Triangle. However with word asdication this made me think of Tintin books so maybe that is a bit more exotic. I have in my plan of 52 a couple of dresses that I wanted to try colour blocking on – using patterns that had an obvious place to put it so I didn’t have to faff about with patterns and adding seam allowances.   This is one of those patterns.

I got Simplicity 9034 from an antique shop in Foxton called Junk n Disorderly. I love the simple lines of it and I made view 2.  When I was doing my mega cutting day I added this dress to the pile using some black heavy knit from my stash (origins unknown as I don’t normally buy black – most likely an op-shop or the remants bin at Fabric Warehouse) and some green/jade twill with slight stretch that I got as a remnant from the Andrea Moore pop up shop.  I had intended to make cute little shorts and then I remembered that I don’t have a little bum and this was never going to be enough fabric.

After the failure of my dotty New Look 6000 I went back to my sewing room looking for some success. I settled on this dress as I knew I would not have to finsh as many edges due to the knit. It is a little heavy for wearing at the moment but autumn is on it’s way so it will get worn soon enough.

I really like this dress. I can lift my arms and move easily. The neck is higher than normal but that is to be expected from a pattern from 1970. Andrew suggested it was a little star trek but I can live with that.
Here is the front view (with closed eyes).