Thursday 28 February 2013

My February polka dot frock

I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to  be showing this one off today!
 
For this is a frock that involved a lot of firsts - and first among those is the fact that never before (I can't actually believe it) have I participated in a sewalong or online sewing event of any sort. But the other week a series of tweets by Scruffy Badger and friends caught my eye, and before I knew it there was a #februaryfrockfest welcoming sewists to sign up for a month of New Look 6000-inspired polkadot loveliness.
 
And it grabbed me. So I did it! And here - drum roll please! - is my first ever rendition of New Look 6000:
 
 
Which is also the first thing I have ever sewn or even worn involving polka dots. And includes my first ever vertical darts (how is it possible I've never done that before??) and first ever kick pleat. In fact I've hardly sewn any dresses in such a classic style before - so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this is an extremely straightforward make.
 
I was confident and impatient enough to decide I wouldn't bother trying my first ever lapped zipper, and put in a straightforward invisible zip instead. I'm not too pleased with the gap of brown between polkadots at the upper back, but then - it's on my back, I don't care that much.
 
 
I made a 14, the middle of the wildly disparate sizes suggested by my measurements, with 2 cm added to the bust darts and 2.5 cm removed from the back. A quick&dirty muslin on Sunday showed that these, my by-now standard pattern adjustments, were fine - but that the waist and bust darts fell far too low. I raised the whole lot by two inches; were I to make this again (and I may well), I'd lower them back down by half that. My bosoms are a little overfitted in this dress, and the waist now falls slightly too high. Another first - I always have the opposite problem, and it feels slightly odd to be wearing something where the garment's waist is higher than mine! The final fit could still do with some tweaking (I think I might have to add swayback to my list of standard alterations), but for a first go I'm extremely happy with how it all turned out.
 
BUT, in my humble and not particularly modest opinion, the most exciting and brilliant thing about this fabulous frock is my first ever underlining. Not the execution (my word, underlining isn't a shortcut at all is it?!), but the colour...
 
 
 
 
Classic and calm on the outside, but on the inside I'm wearing hot pink.
 
 
No-one in the office would ever guess, would they?
 
 
 
I leave you with my top style tip of winter 2013: stylish dressing on cold mornings is made vastly easier by having a scarf that matches your favourite tights.
 
Thank you so much Winnie for the idea, the inspiration and the organising! This may have been my first of many things but I doubt it'll be my last of any of them!



12 comments:

  1. Absolutely divine, Jo!!! What wonderful fabric and I'm so glad you cracked this one, as by now you have realised so many things: it's easy once you've fitted it; classic style to dress up or down...with lots of variations for other versions; polka dots rock. I love your pics too. Will look forward to including you on a round up, possibly of twitter peeps, depending on finishing times etc.

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  2. What a cool dress Jo! I love the hot pink as well. You're right about underlining, I don't know why it gets classified as a "cheat" because it definitely is not! Just a different method with a different purpose. If you haven't checked out the Pattern, Scissors, Cloth blog yet she has some great tips on underlining and also swayback (and suggestions on what else the problem might be if it's not swayback)

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    1. Ooh thanks for the pattern scissors cloth link - brilliant! I have as little idea about swaybacks at the moment as I did about underlining on Monday :-) Unexpectedly steep learning curves here this week!

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  3. Jo, you look spectacular. Congratulations on sewing this and all those 'firsts'. Love the dress and the hot pink inside. Perfectly styled.

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    1. Oh you're so kind! This is my styling in the absence of kids - I banish them to watch tv when I want nice photos :-)

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  4. Beautiful, Jo!! Looooove the pink lining. Great photos and a very cool version of this dress.
    Shelley

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  5. Wow the fit is really different that what I'm used to seeing with this pattern. Almost looks like a tunic. I like.

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    1. haha that's because my figure is almost perfectly square :-) After I made the adjustments for the muslin there were virtually no curves left in the pattern!

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  6. Beautiful dress! Looks good on you.

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  7. What a pretty dress! I love the lining looks adorable!

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  8. thats so sweet and the pop of pink.. I love it

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  9. Hello, this is great! I'm making this for the first time too, but not in polka dot! I love the sassy pink lining, and the spots are gorgeous. Great job.

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