Hello hello! Evening everyone. What's the craic? I'm grand - I've been having a bit of a weird, anxious week. It's definitely everything that is going on in the world; there is just too much news right now. Some reasonably big changes are coming at work and it's impossible to predict just how much and in what way they'll change things. We're currently in the reasonably quiet summer months - which for us means not being completely and utterly flat out - and, while I should be able to enjoy the relative calm, it makes me feel restless. In summary: nothing to actually worry about (apart from the news, that is) but enough to make me feel restless and anxious and unable to sleep. I've been trying to work through it in the best way that I know how: sewing, long walks with Nic and making fun plans.
So that's the craic there. I have been sewing loads, which has been making me feel good - especially as it means I'm working my way through my stash! Tonight I'm going to blog something that I made a few months ago but never got around to photographing. Remember when I made a Tilly and The Buttons Megan dress? Well, shortly after making that dress I spotted this dress in Cath Kidston:
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So that's the craic there. I have been sewing loads, which has been making me feel good - especially as it means I'm working my way through my stash! Tonight I'm going to blog something that I made a few months ago but never got around to photographing. Remember when I made a Tilly and The Buttons Megan dress? Well, shortly after making that dress I spotted this dress in Cath Kidston:
Hydrangea dress - it's currently in the Cath Kidston sale, if it takes your fancy
Much like the Megan dress, the bodice on this dress has cute little tucks rather than darts and, as you can see, it has an a-line pleated skirt. All very nice. I tried the dress on in the shop but, while I liked the shape of it overall, I really really hated the fabric. It's a slightly shiny waffle-textured cotton - not bad on its own, but the colour did nothing for me. Also, you know, it was £75. I don't consider this to be too much for a dress, but it is too much for a dress that I am lukewarm about at best. BUT, all this crabbing aside, it did give me some ideas, which I went home and promptly tried out.
The plan was to lengthen the Megan bodice slightly and stick a pleated skirt on it. Simple, right? It was that simple. I measured the length of one of my favourite bodices - the Emery bodice - and I compared this against the length of the Megan bodice and added on the difference. This meant lengthening the darts in the back bodice, but that was simple enough. I made a couple of bodice toiles to get an idea of how it would work and then I cut into my fabric.
Juliette dress - modified Megan dress with a pleated skirt, worn with Swedish hasbeens duck toe sandals
Yes, the fabric. We have seen this before: many times! But all but two of my cowgirl dresses have been phased out of my wardrobe so when I saw the red colourway pop up on ebay, I bought two metres of it. I used the pleated skirt from New Look 6776, which has a lovely shape.
I was able to cut the bodice to showcase the sassy cowgirl on the rearing horse, which is one of my favourite parts of the design. I didn't do any pattern matching apart from that - as you can see from the waist seam - but I don't know how much that matters on a dress like this.
I've worn the dress a few times since I made it in April. I like it, but I don't totally love it. I think I could have lengthened the bodice a little bit more to hit me at a more flattering place - although I usually need to shorten bodices, I think this is slightly higher than my natural waist! Also, as with my other Megan dress, I'm just not sure about the puffy sleeve heads.
Here's a massively unflattering photo of me to emphasise my uncertainty about those sleeves...
But, you know, I like the neckline and the skirt and obviously I love the print. I probably won't make another one of these (although I probably will make another Megan dress at some point) but I'm glad I gave it a go. And sure, isn't that part of the fun?
And I definitely like it a hell of a lot more than that dress from Cath Kidston. So there's that. Now, that's your lot from me for this evening. Laters!