More of the same - this time with 100% more polka dots!

Hello!

After the success of my gingham sundress, I cut out another version in polka dot voile pretty much straight away. This time I paid a bit more attention and did a self-lined bodice and added some pockets at the front waist seam. I also decided to make it a maxi dress this time, mainly based on the fact that I had the right amount of fabric. The amount of fabric I have is generally behind most of my dressmaking decisions. I actually made it about 3 inches too long somehow so it got a bit dirty in the park. It did feel nice and swooshy though.

I wore this on Saturday, when we went for a bit of an adventure. Dafydd had bought an amp from some guy on ebay, who was going to play at the park stage in deepest, darkest East Berlin so we hired a van and went to meet this guy. It was the most German experience ever. They somehow managed to make a gig bureaucratic - you had to queue at one door to get your ticket, then go and join the other queue to get in. Then you had to queue at the Taler stand to exchange your money for plastic chips before you could buy a drink. Then you could queue at the drinks stand. Anyway, we saw the guy's band, loaded the amp into the van and went back to watch a German all-girl ACDC tribute band, which was suitably hilarious. The forest setting made it a bit surrreal but it was fun.

These pictures turned out a bit blurry but if I don't blog about this now, there is a very low likelihood of me ever remembering to take more pictures of this dress again. So, you know, here it is.

Pretty proud of these pockets actually.

I promise I will have a different dress to show you next time!

Tschüüüüüß

New dress!

Hello!

I hope everyone is enjoying this weather. I have been mostly making sure there are several fans around me at any one time and drinking lots of cold white wine because hydration.

I have been working on my kimono bodice over the last few weeks and I was reeeaally happy with it but then it got way too hot to have my shoulders covered so I actually haven't even worn the finished product. I will blog it when it gets cool enough to have fabric on my shoulders. So... October by the looks of it. This little sundress was a quick make because Berlin went from hot to surface-of-the-sun hot and I didn't have anything cool enough to wear.

I haven't really worn strappy sundresses that much because they do tend to... accentuate certain features on me. Maybe it's the princess seams? To be honest, after I drafted my princess bodice and saw the shape of the pieces, it was blindingly obvious why no patterns had been fitting me, no matter how many changes I made. I used the excellent Suzy Furrer's Craftsy course (cannot recommend her classes enough) to alter my princess block into a strapless bodice then just added some 1" wide straps and a dirndl skirt with patch pockets. Aside from the drafting, this whole dress took about 3 hours. It was an excellent little summer project for a heat-related dress emergency.

 

 It's a bit shorter than I usually go for but it is bloody hot so the knees came out. Also, my iron packed in so the skirt was a bit crumpled - the fabric is a kind of cotton seersucker type of thing that wrinkles really easily. Obviously still wore it though, I have no shame. I wore this for a day of boring but necessary errands, like recycling my many booze bottles and buying a new iron. Don't worry, we went to the beach bar to make up for being grown ups the whole day.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this draft. It fit pretty well as drafted, I just needed to take the top of the princess seams in to compensate for a hollow chest. The straps could do with coming in a bit at the front though, there is marginal bra strap peekage.

I've already got some black polka dot cotton ready for my next version - I think I'm going to try this bodice with a maxi skirt and in-seam pockets this time.

Tschüß!