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| My first belt pattern review! Pattern can be downloaded from here. |
Hello beautiful people hope you are having a wonderful weekend. My weekend was fantastic, apart from Swans beating my team Hawks in the AFL Grand Final... :( Don't worry Buddy Franklin, still love you! Isn't this the most beautiful man??!
After finishing my Minnie Mouse dress last week, which also served as a muslin, I got working on my dress for the work function that's coming up in less than two weeks. Yikes!
All week I have been jotting down notes on what style bodice I wanted. The Brownlow and Emmy Awards were on last week which gave me a little inspiration... I toyed with the idea of making the bodice like Rebecca Twigley's dress - zipper up to hip/waist and fasten it with a button or tie at the neck. In the end I settled on a simple scooped back with full circle skirt. I like to wear a bra when I go out.
I already had fabric for the dress from last week's shopping trip at GJ Fabrics, all I needed was lining and a zipper. Friday afternoon I remembered I had red sunsilky lining, purchased during Spotlight's 30% off sale. Color blocking, yay! Midnight blue and red would be hot!
I went home, scoffed down dinner (at 5pm... early bird!!) and started.
Initially I was going to use the New Look 6723 bodice, but because the muslin (Minnie Mouse dress) was View D and the bodice I wanted for this dress was View B, I thought it was too risky to not make another muslin since the NL size 8 is still big and the high neck bodice would probably cave in too much. Didn't have time for a muslin though so I used the V8511 bodice (which must be OOP cos I can't find it on BMV). I've used it twice and haven't had any issues with the fit, and I get compliments every time I wear the floral version.
I wanted to make a belt to go with the dress. I was thinking something easy and quick to make like a long satin tie or something like that, that could be tied up as a big bow (inspired by Cindy - Cation Designs 'Put a bow on it' post). I'm always on Twitter so of course I tweeted this thought and I got a response from Rachel of House of Pinheiro blog. This is why I love Twitter.
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| Follow me on Twitter ;) |
The belt pattern pattern that Rachel so kindly hooked me up with is a free pattern from Lisette, described as a little bow belt that could be used to dress up any outfit.
I checked out the PDF and it looked easy enough to tackle over the weekend, but first I needed the dress!
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| Finished sewing bodice shell & lining, bagged the bodice on Friday night. About 5 hours work. |
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| Stayed up till 3am watching Homeland then woke up at 6:30am Saturday morning and cut out the full circle skirt. Tested a store-bought belt on the dress - perfect! Red and blue = gorgeous. |
I learnt how to cut a full circle skirt from Andrea Tung's blog 'Making Things' which says to measure your waist - in my case I measured the waist of the finished bodice - then divide by 3.14 then divide by 2 = radius.
FORMULA: 67cm / 3.14 / 2 = 10.66cm.
Every time I cut the skirt out with the radius given in the above calculation, the skirt waist is too big for the bodice. Is it me? Am I that shit at maths I can't even work it out on iPhone calculator??
Anyway, this time I cut it with a smaller radius - 9.5cm - just a guess, if it was too small I could always make it wider... and guess what, it fit PERFECTLY.
The length of the skirt is about 45cm.
Time to play with the belt pattern!
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| Looked at PDF on my iPhone, cbf hooking up the printer so I recreated the pattern. The lines on the cutting mat are so useful! |
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| Ta-da! Made the bow much bigger than the original pattern. Big bow will be the 'hero' of my dress (too much Masterchef). |
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| Bias... omg 2 metres of fabric for a BOW?! |
Left the dress to hang on my mannequin then went back GJ's to get satin for the bow. I decided on the same midnight blue as my dress and red.
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| If you think my dining table is messy, you should have seen my lounge room floor! Shit everywhere! |
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| Hand sewing snap fasteners on to my bow belt. |
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| Yayayayayya! Was so happy when I tried it on and it was exactly what I imagined! |
Pattern Review: Lisette Women's and Girl's Bow Belt (free pattern)
Fabric:
- 1m midnight blue satin (bow)
- 1m red satin (bow and belt)
Notions: 4 Metal snap fasteners, 1m interfacing
Time: about 4 hours (drafting pattern and constructing bow and belt)
Cost: Fabric $14; Snap fasteners $1.65, interface from stash, pattern free. Total: $16.
Cost: Fabric $14; Snap fasteners $1.65, interface from stash, pattern free. Total: $16.
Techniques used:
- Bias cut fabric
Pattern Modification/Adjustments:
- Made the bow much bigger than the original pattern but still same style bow.
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| Very pleased with how easy and quick this bow belt was to create. Thanks Lisette and thanks Rachel for sharing! |
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| Added one extra (female?) fastener to make belt tighter/looser :P |
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| Still finding my feet with hand sewing things like this to fabric. |
I apologise for this very text and photo heavy post! Just so much to fit in!!
Ok so now on to the dress!
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| V8511 bodice with mods to back bodice piece to create scooped back. Self drafted dull circle skirt. |
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| Bow at the back vs bow at the front. |
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| I think bow at the back wins... just by a little! |
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| This is my favorite style - high neck, scooped back. |
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| Bow at the front...cute. Now I'm undecided between back and front again. |
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| Oooh, no bow! Too many options. |
Pattern Review: Frankenpattern dress. Size: Size 6 Fabric:
Notions: Invisible zipper 14" (dark navy), 80cm grosgrain ribbon (navy), 1 bikini hook, Gutermann thread (000, 156) Time: about 8 hours Cost: Fabric $14; Lining $15; Zipper $2; Grosgrain Ribbon $1.65, Bikini Hook & Pattern from stash. Techniques used:
Pattern Modification/Adjustments:
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| Back bodice piece from V8511. |
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| Red sunsilky lining and a navy grosgrain ribbon waist stay. |
If you have made it this far, thanks for reading!! This has to be the longest post I have done!
Next up on my sewing table is a dress for another awards night in November, a dress for my company Xmas party in December and possibly a Halloween costume, as well as finishing off projects from dressmaking class (ahem M5850 and Burda nightmare).
I have always been a 'never wear same dress twice to an event' girl, once a dress has been worn to one event, it's never touched again. I fear I am becoming that way with my handmade dresses too!!
Update: Photos of me wearing this dress at the function are blogged here.