So I had this dress cut out and ready to go, but hadn’t got round to making it yet. Then I (on somewhat of a whim) bought Versailles Rose Bouquet by Baby the Stars Shine Bright (a lolita dress for those for whom that was just gobbledegook) off a nice lady off the internet.
It arrived, but is considerably too small round the tits (not often I get to say that 🙂 )
I sulked, and then decided I wanted a new dress that day regardless, so I was going to have to finish the dress I was making. So I did!
Anyway……this is a Tilly & the Buttons Coco dress, and I’ve got to say, it is one of the easiest things I’ve ever made! Super simple to put together, in fact a bit too simple as I got my overlocker out and overlocked a load of stuff that was supposed to just be single row zigzag stitch. The fabric I chose (more about that in a minute) frayed like anything so i’m not sure how long a single row of zigzag will hold in the places I left it in, but we’ll see.
Pictures all taken down our allotment btw! Yep, we have an allotment, well Jon does, I tried to do some light digging with a long handled trowel and set off the ME for two days, so its very much his project.
I wasn’t sure before I made this dress how it would work on me, I used to wear loads of 60’s style A line dresses when I was thinner, but I’ve been a bit wary of them since I’ve put on weight (not that getting hold of any commercial ones has been easily possible anyway) and I’m not a fan of high necklines much. but I really like it, it fits ok and it is really not bad from a flattering point of view. I may well make some more for winter as it is a really useful cold weather dress….
In better quality knit fabric!….
So I was drawn to this fabric because of the cool triangular quilted decoration on it that I thought looked really high end and 90’s revival…
(close up of dress and fabric pattern)
It washed and ironed all right (except I ironed it on the back which at the time I didn’t realise was important) and although it slipped around a bit as I sewed and was slightly prone to fraying it seemed fine.
Then the collar wouldn’t go down the way it was supposed to no matter what I did, so I decided to iron it, which was a very silly thing to do,as it turns out a hot iron on the right side of the fabric causes it to melt a bit. Luckily as it is black and I took the iron off quick enough you can’t really see it, but I know its there 😦
Then I tried it on, & I’ve got to say this is the least breathable, sweatiest fabric I’ve ever tried. I’m sure it’ll be fine in the middle of winter, but the rest of the time its far too hot.
I suppose that is the risk from buying stuff off the market stall, if you are buying lengths of unidentified fabric for £2.50 a meter you occasionally get something a little weird.
I like the dress pattern enough though to be considering buying some decent quality sweatshirting to make another version.
I am off to a wedding this weekend, so no sewing much for the rest of the week, however I have just prewashed a length of stretch black velvet to make a skater dress with. (I’m so 90’s!) So far it has reacted well to the washing machine, which is good, & doesn’t look like it will need flattening in any way, which is even better. 🙂
euphoricstimuli 