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Showing posts from October, 2014

Vintage Peplum Dress

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Pattern Review: Simplicity 1460 I have been wanting a jean dress in my wardrobe for a while now and I decided to try it out using Simplicity 1460 . I have to admit I don't tend to go for vintage styles, but the scalloped neckline caught my eye. I chose to pair the bodice from view C with the peplum from view B. I wore this to work last week and this is how I styled it.  I am going to hold my hands up and admit that I should have done a muslin for this dress, especially as it has minimal options for fitting as I sew. I did have major fitting problems with the bodice. There was too much excess fabric in the top of the bodice and the sleeves extended too far. I removed the excess by adding in a 2" dart from the armhole to the bust and in the back from the armhole to the top of the back waist darts and reshaped the sleeves. I traced a new bodice pattern piece and was lucky enough to be able to cut them out of my already cut bodice fabric.  I cut a 16 all over,

DVF Rip Off Wrap Dress/October Garment of the Month

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Pattern Review: Butterick 5454 At the beginning of September I went on holiday to Paris.  We were walking past the Galeries Lafayette where Diane von Furstenberg was paying homage to 40 years of the wrap dress. It was such an awesome window display, here is a very sunkissed photo that I snapped.  Suddenly it dawned on me that my current wardrobe does not contain a wrap dress. And I wanted one. Like right now. For this wrap dress I used Butterick 5454 , now OOP. I had made this pattern before ages ago in my pre-blogging days and knew that it would be perfect.  As you may have guessed, I am not a huge fan of dresses with sleeves, so I went for the flounce sleeved version, which is also a bit different and not hugely DVF in style. I cut a size 14 all over and made minimal changes My only alterations were to grade in a bit more boob coverage to the bodice pieces (aka a FBA) so I could wear this bad boy to work and I took 1.5" off the length, no reason really, just p

Teal Knit Dress

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Pattern Review - New Look 6123 I have been in stash-busting mode recently and knocked up another version of New Look 6123 . You can see my previous version here . I love that ponte knit makes you feel as though you are wearing pyjamas, and so coming into the colder months I can see a ponte knits having a large presence in my life. Especially being sat at work when it is dark outside! This teal ponte knit has been in my stash for a while and I knew that it would be perfect for this pattern. I picked this up from Fabricland during a trip to Bristol. Fabricland do a great selection of basic ponte knits for £3.99 per metre. When I wore this to work this week I had lots of comments on how lovely the colour is. Interestingly it looks less blue and more green in real life.  In true creative style I made the same view as last time - cutting a size 14 all over, and made the same adjustment to take out 2" at the top of the centre back. I graded this out to nothing where the