The Tropical that Pushed Through - Annalotte (BHL Pattern Smash)

Hey Guys, 

Back again! And clearly a detour from my 'Demure' year, eh? Well seen as this was started back at the end of last May, so maybe we can give this a free pass??

Pity I ain't going to Viva this year, because this would be perfecT for the Vintage Tropicallyness that Rockabilly can be. The dress is an Anna bodice (with an altered neckline), merged with a Charlotte skirt - my first!

The alteration to the bodice (if some of you have eidetic memories) is the same as the one I did for my sparkly pink sequin dress last June. In fact, this bodice was Muslin #2. Muslin #1 was wider on the shoulder, and kept slipping off. So clearly, that had to be fixed. I may have also adjusted the scoop to be a tad lower.

You may also remember this fabric. It's the piece that never ends. I've made a skirt for my sister and myself already. Granted I bought a 5m length on Goldhawk road (about a million years ago now). I'm coming to the end now, there ain't much left!

And when I sewed it up - HOT DAMN - it fit perfectly.

I decided there and then, that the Muslin must live. I have always loved Roisin's various iterations of the Annalotte frankenpattern so I muslined myself up a Charlotte skirt too. I was a bit worried that it might have been a bit tummy hugging, but actually it was fine.

I did go to the effort of trying to adjust the skirt darts to line up with the bodice ones. I just about got the in the front (luckily there was some decent stretch to get me through the difficult times!) but Dear God I don't know what happened in the back. I thought I had the pieces the right way around, but I can't think of any other explanation!

Thankfully the darts are basically invisible in this print. And this fabric is also awesome for understitching. It was like a perfect example of stitches hugging the facing to the inside. I handpicked a lapped lemon metal zipper in (I know, more lemon zippers). I love handpicking, it's definitely my favourite method now. It may take a little longer but I end up with a much better result. 

Does anyone else love hair flowers? I need to wear more hair flowers. And I wish I could carry my parasol around more often. It makes you feel AWEsome :) Ahhhh Vegas... good times. I also bought these black wedges for the holiday but couldn't decide that they were comfy enough for long periods of time before we left. I held onto them though. Hee hee...

Has anyone noticed the pile of fabric peeking into the frame? That's my special fabric.

My special specials.

The only thing about the dress that I did consider (but not that hard, because I forgot) was the need for a back vent. But I can separate the back seam pretty handy down the line. It'll only take me 5 minutes.

As you can see. Not so much in the climbing over or into things department. I am usually awesome at that. We are having a 'keep the car till it dies' sort of situation. So most days if I'm driving I get out of the passenger side of the car. I swear, I'm out in 2 seconds flat. 

It it does make me feel super wiggly though. I didn't line it either, so it's a no tights zone. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to line. Plus this stretch cotton is pretty substantial.

I think I'm definitely going to make another Charlotte skirt before long. My favourite all time version is Fiona's green wool beauty. Believe me, it's even better in person. And we all know how much I love a pegged skirt. This is the full length by the way, I think with about a 2cm turn up. I stitched the hemline first of all to help me turn it up nice and even and I pressed it in place with some Steam-a-Seam I got for a bargain (if you haven't encountered it, it's like a mini Wundaweb). I haven't sewn it in yet, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out a length before committing.

So there we have it. A seasonally inappropriate dress! 

It isn't quite Jungle January in the animal print sense, but I'm still in a Jungle ;)

LYLT,

Emmie x

Sparkle Sparkle FLASHBACK

Hey Guys,

We sort of need to have a little flashback to June.

I kind of didn't get the chance to go through all of the construction details of the sequinned dress! 

This post is majorly picture heavy (just a warning!) and unfortunately most of the construction pictures are taken with my phone. Bad habit! So what's coming is a bit of a hodge-podge of before and after photo's! And of course the dress lining could do with a press/steam too, but never mind.

Oh, and I couldn't reach the hook and eye! It was difficult taking new pictures, as the light was super reflective on the sequins :)

When I dreamt of my dress, I wanted a scoop neck and a full floaty tea length skirt. Those were my criteria and I managed to fill them! I thought long and hard about what bodice to use. I wanted as few seams as possible, and although there are a few in this one, they were in manageable places! And also, I knew that I had already gotten a good fit with this bodice, and I was loathe to start muslining a new one.

The bodice of the dress is a modified BHL Anna bodice. I redrafted the front and back neckline to be scooped for a change. I had to redraft the front once, as it was slipping off of my shoulders. It was just a touch too wide.

The sequinned fabric is a sequinned Spanish lace from Minerva Crafts, and the lining was a butter soft cotton poplin from Fabrix on Goldhawk road. It was stashed a long time before but was a beautiful match!

Ok, let's start from the start.

Firstly I cut out the lining pieces. 

I had spent a long time trying to work out the construction of the bodice to get the scalloped neckline just right. I decided the best was to to construct the bodice with the lining acting as an underlining. 

I bias-bound the edges of the neckline and sleeve hems of the lining. I then basted the lining pieces to the sequinned fabric.

I spent too many hours trimming sequins out of the seam allowances. I utilised the blank edges of the sequinned fabric as much as possible for places like the back seam but unfortunately I couldn't use them everywhere and there were a hell of a lot of sequins to go! I wasn't risking my machine.

I kind of lost feeling in my fingers.

I also trimmed the sequins out of the darts. I hand-basted each dart also. I stitched up the centre of each dart to secure the fabric before I stitched the dart legs.

After I put the bodice pieces together, I bias-bound the shoulders, side seams and hem - enclosing both lining and sequins together.

I cut the scalloped neckline by eye, and ended up having to shape the scallops, as opposed to following the line of the individual fabric pieces. I used fray-check on some but most were okay.

I tacked the scalloped neckline to the lining under the edge of the bias binding so that it was invisible.

I also bias bound the skirt lining pieces, which I had cut as a half circle skirt. 

For the sequined fabric, I used a full width of the fabric, utilising the blank edges for the side seams. I pleated the full width of the fabric into the front lining piece and half onto each back piece. 

Oh and I pleated it all by eye. And re-pleated it repeatedly until it fit. I then stitched the pleats to the lining fabric and bias-bound the waist seam. I had french seamed the sequined fabric so that it was loose over the lining. The sequin fabric is only enclosed in the back seam.

Then came the nerve wracking bit, where I joined the skirt to the bodice. I'm a terror for pulling fabric up into seams, so I used some of those wonder-clips to try and hold things together. Thankfully the sewing god's heard my prayer and when I opened up it was perfect.

I inserting a lapped metal zipped in a pale pink to match the fabric. 

I didn't want to grade any seams so the fabric was impossibly thick, especially with the binding. I hand-sewed it in, and had to use a kind of pliers to pull the needle through. It was hellishly hard to get through but I got there in the end.

Turns out taking the sequins off leaves behind the horrible nylon thread, so I had to sew in some last minute grosgrain ribbon from Clare's stash as they were killing my shoulders.

I'm assuming the side seams would be the same, but I wore the dress with a waist-cincher which protected my skin.

The weight of the skirt with all the sequins was pretty impressive, so I added in a grosgrain waist stay. I machine sewed it on to the front half of the dress only. It really did an amazing job of supporting the weight. 

By the way, I'm super glad that none of the bulk of the fabric layers translates to show in the dress :)

I used skirt hooks to close the waist stay. I added two different hooking points, but in the end had to add another section with another looser point. Although I could close the tightest, it ended up pulling the dress in too much, and caused distortion of the bodice.

I also hand-scalloped the hem of the dress. The final job, and thankfully was a lot quicker to complete than I thought it would. I left it to hang longer than the lining, as you do.

I was sewing this up until the Thursday night, before the Saturday. I was heading to London on the Friday, so I was definitely down to the wire. I think it took the guts of a fortnight to sew.

I was sick of the sight of it... until I put it on for the event :) It kind of felt like the effort you might put into a wedding dress! And it feels that way when I put it on too...

And just in case you forgot, some flashbacks of the night in question. I wish I had taken more photo's. I was equally as proud of my hair!

Oh, and lastly, some indication as to the state of my house afterwards! The camera couldn't even pick up half of the sequins - whatever you can see, times it by 5!

I have a terrible photo of myself just after finishing, and covered in them, but we shall leave that for another time :)

Well done for sticking with me!

Emmie x

The Daughters of Triton Dress...

Hello All,

So I never actually finished the Vegas Holiday line up!

This was because I really wanted to make some adjustments to the dress before I took pictures, and I only just got around to doing it! 

I'm calling this the Daughters of Triton dress, because when I was trying to come up with a post title, I realised my hair and dress had a bit of a Little Mermaid theme going on :) All I need is a shell to sit in...

This is the teal duchess satin BHL Anna bodice with a circle skirt.

Basically, the issue was that I had added horsehair braid to the hem (or at least some sort of plasticy nylon equivalent) and I ballsed it up a bit.  I was trying to go all out, and even got the braid in a jade green to blend in with the dress.

I spent hours and hours ensuring the hem was level. All I can remember about the days before the trip are: that hem, and watching Three Men and a Baby while working on that hem.

But of course, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to attach the braid while overlocking the hem. Could've worked out ok, but I didn't realise how much the braid can stretch out, and of course the implications that would have on how the hem would sit. And it must have stretched all sorts of crazy.

Cray-Cray

However, I only noticed this when I put the dress on in Vegas - because I had not tried the dress on until then. The front centre hem loop looked mental, looked like I sewed it drunk. Mega drunk. Tequila Drunk.

So unbelievably skew-iff, I was mortified.

So bad in fact, that I spent the evening folding the front loop over to one side with my arm as I was meandering.

So, I upicked the whole overlocked hem the other night, threw the horsehair in the bin (it was ruined anyways as the overlocker had nicked some of the braid and it was all unravelling), and hand stitched up the (now well-pressed) hem.

Putting it on now, it is a million times better, but looking at the photos, the front loop is still marginally longer than the rest. I may go back and re-do it, but I may not.

At least its not looking like its tipsy. Its at least sitting even across the loop. 

In these photos its actually the bottom of the zip that's annoying me, as it doesn't look puckered like that in real life!

I do really like the dress, but I don't love it as much as I thought I would. 

In my brain it was going to be THE DRESS.

I think contributing factors are the fact that the skirt is a bit shorter than I wanted, and the other factor is that the bodice is a smidgen short - which combined with the volume of the skirt at the waist, is not entirely my most flattering look from the side. I need to wear it with a belt to keep some of the volume down!

 I'm also starting to think that maybe I should try out the V-neck Anna neckline for a change. 

Finally, I've sort of fallen out of love with full circle skirts recently. It's just too much fabric to handle when you're trying to sit down, etc. And of course it's way worse at a shorter length than a longer one. 

It can be surprising how much a skirt rides up at the back when you sit down!

Bit of dance action there for ya

So yes, details of the dress.

Nothing else mega special. Hand picked lapped zipper with a matching metal zip. I loves me a metal zip.

The duchess satin presses really well. and I washed a test square on a 30/30 wash and it came out no different so I didn't pre-wash the fabric.

Ain't nobody got time for that coming up to a holiday!

(But you really should make time, do as I say, not as I do, lol)

Here's a couple of mannequin shots for a change! and a peek at some of the stash lol

And that's it folks! Whoops, I almost forgot - one on the night!

I think the holiday is finally finished, and only 2 months after :)

Maybe I can start cracking into the US fabric now. Although I held up one piece today and went to myself - you bought one yard. ONE That wasn't your cleverest move. 

In case you don't know me. I never buy less than two METRES; never mind one yard.

I guess there's some pencil skirts on my horizon, eh?

Emmie x