What to do when you have left over fabric from a black dress and a blue dress but make a black and blue dress? It's back to Famous Frocks for another retake on a classic, this time from a Charlie's Angels star... Famous Frocks fabric estimations are as little high: I used about a meter of each of the blue and black stretch jersey cotton to make this wrap around dress. The whole dress was sewn using poly cotton thread, ball point needles and stretch stitch. I was slightly worried that it would look like as court jester outfit but I think the two tones is quite fun! There are a few problems with the pattern but the main one is the interfacing: even using very light fusible interfacing makes the edges very heavy. I'd recommend only using interfacing for the collar. The seams are also quite messy if you don't have an Interlocker so I would recommend princess seams. I top stitched with a twin needle, one blue and one black thread. I used proper stretch needles but the machine still skipped some stitches. I think this was because the interfacing was so thick. The dress has a fake pocket with covered buttons and fake ties on the 3/4 length sleeves also sewn on with covered buttons. The book suggests using Grosgrain ribbon for the wrap around tie but I used some of the black stretch fabric to match the rest of the dress. I also added about 2" to the skirt to make it longer. Overall, I'm pleased with the result. A dress perfect for casual days out and fun for the office.
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I've delved into Famous Frocks again to try out some stretch fabric dresses. The first is this Rita Hayworth inspired one. It used 1.5x1.5m blue cotton jersey stretch from Tia Knight Fabrics on eBay, 50m royal blue Gutterman thread and 30cm of 6mm clear elastic. This was the first time trying out stretch stitch on the new machine. The pattern suggested using zig zag stitches but that gave bad seams so I used a straight stretch stitch all the way through. It was a relatively easy pattern, requiring only straight stitch, ruffling and top stitching. Also an exciting first outing for the twin needle. The ruffling is a little uneven at the top because the sewing machine kept dropping stitches. I unpicked it twice but it was starting to lose structural integrity so I just had to make do with uneven scrunching. Ruffling was achieved by sewing a wide stitch and gathering it then sewing clear elastic over the top. Next time it definitely needs sequins! Or velvet. Notes for next time: stretch cotton jersey does have a right and a wrong side. Ruffle higher up the front to eliminate the odd gap.
This is another of the Famous Frocks dresses, a sophisticated Jackie O inspired shift in purple. It has a lovely boat neckline and slight swish with an A line skirt. This took 1.5x1.5 m of purple felt, the same of purple lining, a 22" zip(pattern recommends 24" but they're harder to find) one spool purple thread, some gold embroidery thread and a hook and eye. The pattern came together relatively easily although I'm finding the top came out quite small. The suggested seam allowance is 16mm and I ended up giving it 10mm. This is a little too big so go for somewhere in between. The dress isn't lined so cut the same pattern, except for the facing out of their lining. Sew the skirt in the same manner as the main skirt and then attach it at the top wrong sides together. Sew the top lining as the fabric top and then sew it wrong sides together to the fabric at the same time as the interfacing (make sure it will end up under the interfacing!). When attaching the top to the skirt, leave the top lining free and then hand sew it over later, once the zip is attached. I wanted to test the embroidery capabilities of my new sewing machine so decided to embellish the edges with some gold stitching. I wanted to go around the hem, sleeves and possibly collar but unfortunately the machine found the fabric too bulky. I lowered the tension as much as I could and made it around the hem but the four layers of felt at the arm holes were too much for it. Overall, I'm pleased with the dress and think it will look lovely with as black leather belt around the waist, a very stylish addition to the autumn work wardrobe. Later adjustments: I took the neckline up at the back in a triangle from the zip to the shoulder to make it fall better, 1" at the largest. I think this could be improve by using a side seam zip rather than a back Centre seam zip.
A few weeks ago a very generous friend gave me an amazing book called Famous Frocks which has patterns of fashion icon dresses. This is the first one I've tried. It's a swinging sixties design with circle pockets. Rather than go for the traditional four contrasting colours I used blue and black herringbone twill with a black velvet bodice. This took 1.5 x 1.5m of blue herringbone twill, an off-cut of about 1x1.5m black velvet, 1.5x1.5m black lining and four coverable buttons 29mm. This was also my first project on the new sewing machine, which very excitingly has an automatic buttenholer so I have four beautiful, even buttons although it did have a little trouble with the thickness of the wool. The pattern came with optional circle pockets which I thought were suitably groovy and added. I had a lot of trouble with rotating them and in the first attempt ended up with two left hand pockets! Luckily the new sewing machine is very accurate with its stitching and so you can't tell where it's been unpicked! I top stitched the edge of the pockets with a lovely satin stitch to make them stand out more (thanks again new sewing machine). The book doesn't line any of its dresses so I cut a lining pattern out and attached it before adding the placket. I've joined the seams of the dress and lining together but left them free at the bottom so the dress swishes a bit. Overall, I'm really pleased with the dress. The top is as little tighter than expected although the book did say it had made the top a little more fitted. This could also be because of the thick velvet but I might try the next size up next time as I had to sew the seams as small as possible! I think the herringbone is really smart and an authentic material pattern. While the velvet is gorgeous, it does add a slightly nineties child's party feel to the dress!
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