Christmas Party Pastille Dress

Crikey, this post has been a long while in the making!

I received the Colette sewing handbook last Christmas from my Grandma. It was an absolutely brilliant pressie as I learnt a lot reading through the pages, but the colour palette in the book, along with some of the rather fitted/ floaty sleeve-ness of the patterns made it a little difficult for me to visualise myself in any of them.

When I was thinking of making a dress for my works' Christmas party I thought it would be a good excuse to give these patterns a try, and the pastille on the front cover caught my eye. I liked the subtle sweetheart neckline (not the bow... too twee for me) and the sleeves which aren't a separate piece, something I hadn't done before. I knew such a fitted straight skirt would not be a good look on me, though I did swap out the skirt for a straight one in for my stars in their eyes dress. However, looking closely at the picture I could see that the skirt was a separate piece from the natural waist, so it would be an easy job attaching a skirt I liked.

I used the digital rose print fabric I picked up at the Birmingham blogger meet-up, and fully lined the bodice.


I decided to make a muslin of the bodice for safety, and found that something strange happened when I calculated the sizes. I had to cut out a size 6-8  shoulder/ bust but a 14 waist? I think I did a calculation wrong as when I tried this on it was all kinds of wrong, I then cut an 8 waist (in fact I trimmed it to a 12, then a 10 and then an 8!)

Even after I had done this the triangle darts did not work on my body (lucky this was a muslin!) I then pinned the darts closer to my body to fit as I wanted, and I ended up with a close fitting bodice, and half moon darts. Has anyone else ever ended up with rounded darts? Is this a thing?

I used the muslin as my lining, and made the following dress. I finally got round to taking pics of it last weekend! That's a whole 8 months ha ha ha.

I put on a bit of weight after Christmas , and the wedding, and holidays... so this dress became a little bit tight. You can still see in the back it could probably do with a teeny bit more ease, but I've lost most of this weight now so I'm not worrying about it.

I took these pics with my shiny new Pentax Q10, which is somewhere between an SLR and a standard digital. Having no knowledge of how to use the SLR (and no real inclination to learn) was infuriating, so Mr. T got my this for my birthday, it feels a lot more manageable. There are still a lot of settings, but I'm not feeling overfaced any more which is good.

I've taken another whole bunch of pics, so expect some more regular viewing for the next few weeks.

Stars in their eyes interview dress

One of my goals for this year is to develop a 'work wardrobe', staple dresses and skirt/ shirt combinations that I can throw on in the morning and feel smart. I want to able to show my unique style, whilst feeling like a boss (not for sensitive eyes).

This dress is the first step on that road! I love this dress, I feel smart and stylish, I can wear dramatic tights of all colours and shapes, and I got to stretch my embroidery skills on something other than home projects which was cool. I might try and do some more of this, maybe some flowers like the one from this cushion on the bottom edge of a similar dress? I feel the need for a bit of a spring make.

The dress is a combination of the pastille bodice, and New Look 6128 (shocker of a skirt choice). I made a christmas party dress last year (yet to blog about) and I love the neckline for a night out, but for work it's a bit on the low side. I altered the neckline of the bodice by lying out the pattern piece on some medical paper, drawing out my adjusted pastille bodice and free-handing a scooped look with my french curve.

I then cut out my lining in black linen-look cotton from Minerva, which I bought to make another New Look 6128 (never blogged... hmm sensing a theme), which I made last year for something light to wear in the summer months. I've got loads left and have been using it to muslin dress bodices, and then using this muslin as a lining for the actual bodice.

I am very proud of the finish of this dress, it is fully lined, with black bias edging on sleeves and the bottom of the skirt. It really picks out the black of the embroidery.

I went for a non-static generic lining for this project. I like the way it swishes when I walk, and I know my tights aren't going to get stuck on it. Probably should have ironed the lining for this pic but you get the idea.















In order to do the embroidery, I completed the bodice, attaching the lining to the neckline, and under-stitching. I then tacked on some silk organza to stabilise the fabric, and to give a white surface to draw on. I then free-hand drew on the design I was after with a water soluble pen, and stitched with black polyester thread the outline of the stars so that it would show through on the right side of the dress.

I then filled in these stars with a combination of backstitch, french knots and brick stitch.

In order to create the design, I pinned some images of stars on my pinterest board, to give me an idea of what I was looking for. Originally I was planning on creating a pdf which I could use as a template, but once I reached that point, I found it easier to draw the stars on by eye. It was easy once I knew what I was looking for. I thought about doing free-hand machine embroidery for the stars but after some practice realised I liked the control of the hand-stitching.

I even got to match my pockets to the star-theme, with some stitched together very last scraps of my planet fabric.

And now, for making it through all the techie bits... me and an umbrella!... and yes, I chopped off all my hair! :-D