What I am working on

I have been working on a few customer ordered lately that I thought are worth sharing on the blog. It's been all about evening wear lately. Apart from orders on regular day wear pieces from my shop I had some more elaborate requests for custom made festive dresses.

Number one is a 1960s emerald green satin dress I want to share with you today. My lovely customer Katja has had a wedding dress made by me last year (the wedding isn't until this Summer) and now she has a wedding to go to this year as well. This dress is what she's going to wear for that occasion.

She knew exactly what she wanted and bought a pattern for me to use. I like that because it makes it much easier for me.

The chosen pattern was this one:

view 3 with the ribbon detail of view 1 added and a big bow at the back for extra detail.

This is where I am now:

The dress itself is finished and the band attached. I will add a net petticoat underneath the skirt for extra fullness although the material holds itself up quite well. Plus petticoats are cute and skirts can never be too full.

This is the bow. I haven't attached it yet. It'll be on poppers so Katja can choose to wear it with or without the bow. I will also change the tie ends hanging down into wider pieces so the match the bow rather than the band around the dress.

Finished project coming soon. I thought since I never show many work in progress pictures and projects it's about time.

Cotton candy cuteness

It's time for another dress. I made this one with my upcoming holiday in mind. I wanted a dress that was screaming Spring, Summer, Fun and Fairground and I think I have achieved exactly that.

I frankensteined my trusted shirt waist pattern that I have now made soooo many times I am afraid to show any other versions of it now in case I bore you to death with it. But this one is worth showing as it's different to the original pattern. I turned it into a halter dress.

I used turquoise and white polka dot cotton, some left over broderie anglaise from my Spring Palette blouse, baby pink vintage-y buttons and baby pink bias binding around the edges.

Now, who's going to buy me some cotton candy, a milkshake and a burger and fries at the next fun fair?

Action shot of the navy lace dress

As promised, here are some action shots of the navy lace dress posted yesterday. I was wearing it today to go to Londonedge for the day. I didn't take any photos while I was at the fair, sorry but I had a great time checking out some awesome alternative clothing labels. I need to investigate some of the brands a bit more and maybe I will share some of them in a later post. All exhibitors are listed on the Londonedge website though if you want to find out more.

 and some detail shots of my hair and make up

 Love the little anchor earrings.

I was wearing a black cardigan over the dress since it's not quite cap sleeve weather yet. My grandmother in law sorted out some of her old jewelery recently and thought that I might want it. Hello??? Of course I do and thank you so much for thinking of me. Amongst some other lovely pieces was this cute little sweater guard. Perfect to go with my outfit. 

Maybe I should do outfit posts more often. Would you be interested? I am working a lot from home now and therefore don't always dress up including hair and make up. Let me know if you would like to see more outfit posts in the future.

Navy lace dress as part of the Spring challenge finished

I actually wanted to wait with posting my Spring challenge collection until all pieces are finished but then I though, what else can I blog about if it's not about sewing? Plus this way it's not a complete overload of finished projects all at once.

I have a few pieces finished already, so I will show them individually. As mentioned in my Spring Challenge post, I am in love with lace dresses and needed to have one. My inspiration dresses were all cream/ ivory, a colour I don't really wear (it doesn't suit me being a pale red head) plus my Spring palette is all nautical colours. So I went for navy and found some nice lace in one of my local fabric shops last week.

Close up of the navy lace. I stitched all lace pieces to the lining (navy cotton) pieces first.

Bodice (work in progress) 

 Finished product. I also made a sash to go with it. I still had this ribbon at home and some really nice ribbon corsage trim I bought a while ago. I cut up the trim into individual pieces and arranged them on the ribbon. I added a few other notions and stitched it all together. Tadaaa, looking nice and vintage-y to me, just how I like it.

close up of the sash 

 side view

 I didn't line the sleeves to show the lace off a bit better and to add detail.

 Fullness of the circle skirt. I am thinking about making a petticoat for this one once I have made all my Spring challenge pieces. I have never made a petticoat. I think it's quite easy but I am not keen on faffing about gathering all the net/tulle. Not a favourite material of mine.

I drafted the pattern myself. Fitted bodice and circle skirt. I didn't line it because I didn't want the bodice to be too bulky. I only overlocked all seam allowances.

I'll be wearing that dress tomorrow. I am off to Londonedge at Olympia, London tomorrow to check out some alternative fashions etc. I am not sure if I get to take pictures at the fair but I'll get you an action shot of the dress.

Hope you all had a nice weekend and got some sewing done.