The Amazing 8 Hour Christmas Party Dress!

 

I wanted to make a dress for my work Christmas party, I gathered all the required materials...

 

 .....and the pattern, which I got in a charity shop when I visited my parents in the summer.....

Butterick 4376

....in advance and then I ran out of time to actually sew it.  I only had the odd hour here and there in the 2 weeks before and because I am lazy I didn't do anything other than cut it out and do my tailors tacks.  So come Saturday morning I have a bunch of fabric shapes and 8 hours to make a dress or else go naked.  (I did  have other dresses but as I have put on weight since I last wore them I wasn't sure they would fit, or if they would I knew I wouldn't be worrying they didn't.)

Anyway I was determined to make this dress in the allotted 8 hours and you can see by the pic above that I succeeded!  So after some of this.....

Sewing tiny, tiny bias binding

I had this made this by lunch time....

Back

Front

Then my Mum called and I lost an hour and I cooked dinner so that was another 45mins-ish, by the middle afternoon I had sewn what can only be my best invisible zipper.  EVER.

Look at the fab zip!

By 5.30 I had a dress!  Sorry there are not more 'in the making of' pictures, I just didn't have the time to take them as I was trying to work quickly but not rush and bodge the whole dress up. 

Finished dress front

Ta da!  The main fabric of this dress is the fabric I posted about previously that I dyed and I really liked how the edges of the fabric came out so I used the selvedge as my hem which saved a lot of time as no hemming required.  I love the way it graduates out and that it was completely accidental.

Back of dress

The dress doesn't completely fit my model Anne as she is a little smaller than me now but again I am really pleased with the zip.  I followed the instructions that came with the pattern for this one as they were a different method and I think I succeeded in actually making it invisible. There is also a little kick pleat at the bottom which you can't see very well.

Front of bodice

The dot net fabric I bought on ebay pretty cheap as I didn't need very much and I have enough left over for another project.  I wanted a smaller dot but I think this works well.  I used black satin bias binding also from ebay in a really tiny thickness on the arm and neck holes and round the bodice top as I wasn't lining it as the cotton is really thick that I used and it just didn't need it.  I think it looks really neat and tidy.

Back bodice

I used 2 matching buttons in different sizes from my Gran's button stash.  They are glass and have a pearly gold shine to them in the shape of little flowers and I used the larger on the front.  Although the back lays flat here I found when I wore it, it had a tendency to droop and I think this is because the button was too heavy so I would replace it before wearing again. 

Zip again!

I cut a size 12 which I found a little snug on the hips so I went into the seam allowance slightly just on the hips but I loved the darts in the front and back, they fitted really well without showing every lump and bump.  I think I should have adjusted to cut a size 8 on top and 12 on bottom as the top was a bit gapey on me but I didn't realise until after I had applied the binding and I am just not going to undo that!  It actually doesn't show up that much in the pictures, it was more when I looked down it didn't sit right on the sides of my bust.  I might be able to take it in at the side seams which would help.

Boob shot!

I only got pictures of my wearing it at the end of the night so I apologise for the messy hair, smudged make up and creases!

Camera phone shots I'm sorry!

Demented arm!

Here you can see the droopy back problem, also had to take my shoes off, feet were in agony!!

All in all I am pretty pleased with it and one co-worker said I looked really 'sophisticated' so that was a win I think!  I'm not sure I have been called that before!

My First Attempt at Fabric Dyeing

I had a plan to make a copy of a certain Modcloth dress which I have been coveting for ages but just could not find the right fabric.  I then stumbled across what I thought would be perfect to match a border print I have found.  (I am being deliberately vague as this dress will appear in another post once I have gathered all materials.)  I thought I had fund the perfect thing, I was looking for a beige based fabric, sort of the colour of foundation to match the border print and I found a lovely cotton sateen on ebay for a bargain price.

Apricot cotton sateen

I took the gamble and this turned up.  It was a lot darker than I expected but I thought why not try it?  I put it next to my border and yuk it looked awful.  The border has yellows, reds and the foundation colour but this didn't go with any of them.  Worst of all it totally clashed with the red piping I wanted to use and I knew if I made it up I wouldn't want to wear it as it just wasn't a colour I would choose.  So back to the drawing board on finding my fabric choice.  I am thinking I am going to go a completely different way and get some lemony yellow instead as it ties in with the red better.

So then what to do with the apricot fabric?  As I decided not to use it for this project I didn't think I liked the colour enough to use it for something else.  I don't want to waste it so why not try dyeing it?  I won some Dylon dyes a while ago but I didn't have enough of a single colour so I picked some up from Wilkinsons.  Isn't that weird that they sell it there? 

I have had a plan for a Christmas party dress in my mind for a bit and thought if I could dye it a usable colour then it could become this.  The fabric did have some sort of treatment as it was slightly shiny and is fairly dark so I didn't think it would dye completely solid but hoped it would have some effect.

I had read about the pre-dye that Dylon has and thought that would be a good idea to try and strip the colour so here it is after following the instructions on the packet.

After pre-dye

It does looks significantly lighter in the photos, a little less so in real life but it didn't remove all the colour.  This made me think that the dye may not work as well as hoped but this was all pretty much an experiment anyway.  It also removed the treatment and was no longer shiny on one side so that is good. 

After Intense Violet

The dye I used was Intense Violet which is really very purple and did leave a bit of staining on the rubber of my washing machine so be careful of that.  You add salt too (not sure what this does) and I again followed the instructions.  It is not violet but is a really nice pinky-burgandy colour and much more wearable than the original.  One thing that happened was that the edges took the dye better than the rest so I have a ombre style finish.  I quite like this and would love to incorporate it into my outfit but as of yet I am not sure how.  I am pleased that the fabric is now more usable but if I did it again I would use a 100% cotton to get the full colour effect and be more aware that cotton mixtures don't take as well.