The latest in the Famous Frocks collection: the Mary Quant dress. the variation in the book uses a different colour yoke and hem; it looked really good and I thought it would be fabulously geeky to find a glasses print to use. I'd hoped to find a black with white printed glasses to stick to the original dress but the pink turned out excellently. The dress is fully lined and made from a poly cotton suiting with white backed cotton glasses print and sheer sleeves. There is a 22" zip in the back and a 1" button on each of the cuffs. I liked the contrast of the glasses print so much that I decided to put it on the cuffs too. The pattern was mostly straight forward although the yoke was difficult to sew and became a little ruffled, having to be unpicked. Owing to the cut of the dress and my wide shoulders, I sewed the back neck 2" lower than suggested and that made the collar quite short: next time, I need to redraw the pattern for the back, back facing and collar so that it fits better. It is also quite tight across the chest and could do with a slightly lower front neckline while still keeping the Peter Pan style. Once again, I doubted the length of the dress and ended up cutting off the 2" I added. I should have added 1-2" to the sleeves as they are a little short. Materials needed: 2x fat quarters pink geek chic glasses print cotton 2x fat quarters white cotton as underlining for glasses print 0.5m sheer black fabric 2m black cotton suiting 22" zip 2x 1" buttons Lightweight Fusible interfacing Black cotton thread 2m black lining The black suiting was very good at fraying. If I were to use it again I'd suggest using hem binding and finishing all of the seams. Overall, I'm very pleased with the style of the dress- it's really fun while being a sensible length and flattering without being too tight. I should put glasses on all of my sewing projects!
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A dress for a friend who loves reading. She gave me my Famous Frocks pattern book and this is one of the last dresses that i haven't tried: the Marilyn Dress. It's an adjustable eight panel, halterneck dress. The fabric is printed cotton and was quite heavy. I was expecting the bookshelves to be evenly spaced but the pattern only repeated itself every 3 shelves, which was difficult! I wanted the shelves to align on the skirt in V shapes but some of the them are quite shallow Vs because of that. The skirt is fully lined in rust coloured cotton ( note to self: cotton burns and melts if you use a linen setting iron on it) which is also the contrast waist and the back of the neck straps as there wasn't quite enough space in the fabric. The bodice is top stitch 6mm from the edge all the way around so that it falls nicely: the burgandy thread is pretty. However, the pattern does not seem to align very well at the neck strap-bodice interface: I'm not sure that it is the correct width as my neck straps turned out thinner. I don't think that's just poor cutting out! To make it adjustable, I put two button holes (the one step button hole on my new sewing machine is amazing!) 4" apart on either side of the waist and some elastic between. The elastic also has button holes in it so that it can be tightened or loosened. The waist tie should hide any gathering. Conveniently, the straps can be attached to these buttons too. I've put three button holes into each strap so that their length can be adjusted too. Materials needed: 2 spools of burgundy thread 4m rust coloured cotton 3m library print cotton 4 burgundy 1" buttons Iron on interfacing 7" burgundy zip Marilyn Pattern size L Overall, it's a pretty summer dress: the book pattern worked really well. However, it is quite short: if I were to make it for myself I'd have to add 2-4" to the skirt. The back straps are also quite revealing! But I'm sure perfect for reading a book in the sun!
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