Annie Dress by Tessuti

Finally a more successful maxi dress.  This dress didn't get off to a very good start.  Firstly as far as printing the dreaded PDF pattern went, I thought I'd printed all the pieces.  I chose the A4 option and spent a lunch hour at work putting the pieces together.  I didn't pay much attention to what was written on the pattern pieces. If I had I would have noticed pieces missing.  So upon setting out to make the dress I realised that at least one piece was missing, the shoulder straps.  I went into the original email and found there was a second A4 PDF print out.  I found the strap amongst that.  As far as I was concerned I had all the rest of the pieces so didn't understand what this other print out had on it.  I just assumed I used the same pieces for front and back, particularly for the lower half of the dress.  In fact front and back of everything seemed identical. 

It also became clear on assembly, that I was missing a front yoke and front side section.  As it turns out the facing sections comes as one piece not 2 front/back and side panels (see below). I just assumed one piece was the front section and the two pieces were for the back yolk section and side. I only noticed the word "back" on the pieces after I had laid out my fabric.  

Rather than find the missing pieces I just used the back facing section for the front and joined it up with the back and back side sections. So instead of having 2 side sections there is one little side section that is different. I think it looks fine given the colour of the fabric.  I also didn't want too much under arm flab showing so I added an extra centimetre to this section. Once I worked out the issues with the pattern pieces the dress came together really quickly. A nice easy and super comfy frock. Will definitely try this pattern again. 

I bought the black chambray on line at the Remnant Warehouse. I didn't think I'd have quite enough fabric when I started cutting it out.  But managed to stretch it to get a decent length.  Once again I didn't bother with the pockets.  They may be good for posing for blog photos but I rarely find myself putting hands in pockets in my daily life.   

So lesson learned re: reading pattern first before starting to make it.  It probably would have been more apparent it there was a picture of the layout for cutting out the fabric. Then I would actually notice there were different pieces.  And also I apologise for the grainy nature of my photos.  The weather turned overcast just as I was all ready to shoot my photos. 

Things in the works and purchases anew

I haven't been motivated in the last 3 or 4 weeks to photograph any of my recent makes.  Initially when I set on this blogging odyssey I wasn't even going to take that many photos of me, but rather post photos on my dressmaker dummy.  But now that I've been mostly blogging photos of my mug to showcase my frocks I guess I'll stick to that plan.

 

In lieu of a new frock shot I shall share a few recent ebay purchases.  It is hard to stay away from pattern shopping on the interweb.  And I do like some vintage patterns. 

 

 

Hard to go past a good classic 70's wrap dress.  I haven't actually tried a wrap dress before purely because of the amount of material that you usually require.  This one however doesn't appear to be too bad. And I loved the bodice and pockets for the 1950's pattern.

  

 

Love love loved the 70's sun dress pattern. A super easy pull over the head little number.  However, it does use a poo load of material (4m).  I can't really see how it would given the bodice and skirt are separate pieces, and I'm not sure it's cut on the bias or anything.  And finally the 60's dress above was just too divine to pass up. I can definitely see me in the red version.   

 

And finally, when in doubt make another cat themed frock.  I bought this lovely material from a little gifty knick-knack shop. And I'm going to give this old favorite Cynthia Rowley pattern another burl using the dress version.

 

I bought about half a dozen patterns on the weekend when I was away at the coast with a friend.  Surprisingly I bought mostly 80's patterns. I'm tempted to try my luck at culottes or just some fullish style shorts. Also there were some decent elastic wasted dresses which I could alter to give them a more modern finish.  I really didn't see myself ever buying 80's patterns. I mean, been there done that. Wasn't a big fan of that decade, particularly the fashion.  And don't get me started on the couple of times I permed my hair. Fortunately those hideous times aren't very well documented.