the girl with the dragonfly dress

Not the most original blog title, but it was either that or 'how I made this dress yet again'

This started out as a potential Easter dress and an experiment. I wanted to see whether I could make a dress in a week. Well ... as I am posting it now when I believe we are in fact fast approaching Pentecost ... it can safely be said that whilst I might be able to make a dress in a week, I was unable to make this dress in a week.

I hadn't set myself up to fail as I made this dress twice before in exactly this kind of fabric (cotton poplin), yet somehow I had little stumbling blocks with the bodice and then there was a fabric fault in one of the skirt panels, which I obviously only found after I sewed the skirt section, so that needed to be recut and refrenchseamed. Also, what was I thinking of trying this the week before Easter with both children on school holidays, not really, not exactly sewjo inducing atmosphere.

As this is the third version of this dress, I should probably look and expand my horizon, but I think I have 1 more version of this dress in me. Perhaps I should go a size down next time as I fitted this one when I was 8 kilos heavier and it is a tad roomy now. I actually thought about this before I made this one, but as I intend to wear it to my sisters wedding (unless she tells me it is not fancy enough) I thought having a bit of room to eat an extra piece of cake might not be a bad thing ... not that I am greedy ... just sayin' :-)

PS.: the more that I look at the pictures (especially the ones I didn't post), the more I am becoming convinced I should try and take it in a little after the wedding, but we will see. Reality is that I am not a fan of a lot of ease, but some people have complimented me on the other 2 versions of this dress and said how well the fitted me, so I was left wondering whether I always fitted things too tightly and that a little extra ease would actually look better on me. However, looking at the pictures for the back, there are now fabric folds indicating extra fabric whereas previously it fitted just right. It could also be that these pictures were taking with my phone in a hurry (because my camera has no batteries and I finished this dress 2 weeks ago) and that they are simply not the best pictures and there is nothing wrong with the dress as it is fitted ... sigh

UFO #1 the 'break the hiatus' dress

This was originally supposed to be a wearable muslin for my birthday dress. I started in August and then September rolled around and it changed it's name to the birthday dress. And then October came and it changed it's name to the 'tax return' dress. And now ... sigh ... it is November and I used it spurn myself on and break this unintentional hiatus from sewing.

It is New Look 6935, but I added little cap sleeves to make it more wearable in the harsh Queensland sun and to protect my shoulders a little.

I did a 12 throughout and it fits very comfortable with plenty of ease. The only alteration was adjusting the back (same as last time really).

It's a little shorter then my usual, mainly due to my husband pointing out that I am not over the hill yet and I thought why not. I wear flats most of the time and I am short, so I don't really need to finish everything at the knee.

I feel really pleased with this dress ... actually I am beyond pleased, I wore it today and 2 people wanted to know where I bought it ... hehe ... and I feel like making at least 2 more right now, but alas, there are more UFOs ... many more :-)

the Australia Day Dress

or the dress formerly known as the Christmas Dress. In all fairness I had finished all but the hemming for Christmas, but then it was so hot and I couldn't motivate myself for that last step. Hemming is my least favourite thing to do and I don't really know how to overcome that.

I finally decided on New Look 6935 and I did view B. I guess all the work with the kids clothes was worth it, because there wasn't one thing in the instructions that made my go cross-eyed or tearful.

I measured myself and made a muslin of the top in size 14 and it was MASSIVE, so I next up made a size 12 and it fitted quite well. I seem to have a small back, because I had to take quite a bit out in the back, but otherwise the fit was okay. I least as good as I would get buying it. The pictures are a bit dreary due to the left over weather yesterday from Ex-Cyclone Oswald. Luckily we still had power and the flooding was less then expected.

I haven't got a picture from the back, because I ended up cutting a size 12 in the skirt as well (I didn't make a muslin for that thinking it flares out more then it actually did) and I think I should have cut a size 14. It fits as in it goes over my bottom, but it doesn't skim as nicely as it could, ... sigh, perhaps instead of sewing more I should be walking more. Anyway, I am quite proud of its insides ... french seams, and I used some bias take for where the bodice and the skirt connect and it's all neat.

Since I had already sewn most of the dress before Christmas I can't really count this towards the Stashbusting Sewalong, but I did make another little skirt for my baby girl.

It is left over fabric from my sister's pj pants and my girly girl likes it despite it's blueness. Since I was out of wide elastic, I made the waistband out of 2 thinner bits of elastic separating them with a seam, so I feel like awarding myself extra points for that.

This was part 1 of the great Australia Day finish-a-tron, part 2 shall come tomorrow :-)