Wednesday 23 April 2014

Fella, this is a line i ain't biting. That's a bona fide offer. Well, with a little moonlight and roses...


So you know what this post is going to be about! Unless you have been living under a rock (or at least not keeping up with your sewing blog reading) you'll have heard about Sew Dolly Clackett organised by the fabulous Sarah from Rhinestones and Telephones. Sarah  had the great idea to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of the very lovely Roisin and Nic by making dresses in the style of Roisin herself. And let me tell you, that girl not only has great style and a presumably immense wardrobe/shoe storage area, she always gets a perfect fit and finish on her dresses. I've never seen her in one that looked less than perfect!

Anyway, enough gushing. What's the craic with this dress?



This is my second attempt at Christine Haynes Emery dress.  The first one was a total fitting fail that I blogged about here. So for this I went back to the drawing board, retraced the bodice and made another toile. I got some really helpful comments on my post before which helped improve this one. I lengthened the bodice by 2" and moved the darts down by 1". I did my usual 1/2" FBA.  One area that was a big problem in the previous version was the shoulder width. Based on measuring the previous one, I did a broad shoulder adjustment of 1" and a 5/8" square shoulder adjustment (which I often do).

I'm pleased with the fit. An extra 1" in bodice length wouldn't go amiss but it's pretty good as is!
I used the skirt (extra 2" length) and sleeve (widened by 1" to take account of shoulder adjustment and because it was a touch tight) that I had used before.

I am quite annoyed with the pics though - they were taken in a hurry before work this morning and the dress looks seriously wrinkly which it doesn't in real life.  Damn.



Now for the fabric. This was the hardest choice! How can you narrow down all the possibilities? Roisin says this is why she makes so many dresses! I wanted to reflect her style but also make something wearable for me, and much as I love her pin up girl dresses, they just aren't me! An idea had been brewing in my brain since I remembered asking roisin on twitter to recommend some fabric for a dress. She picked one of the prints from the Michael Miller Ahoy Matey collection for me, I think this one. So the nautical idea was there and a sale on nautical prints at fabric.com sealed the deal!

This is another Michael Miller fabric called My Favourite Ship from the Out To Sea collection.  N absolutely loves it. Of course my dress needs a name, so I asked her and she has called it the Neverland Pirates dress (from the cartoon series Jake and the Neverland Pirates).

I finished this dress with moments to spare due to a nasty 24 hour bug I had over the Easter weekend (that's prime sewing time dammit!). The hem was done at 10pm the night before and I did consider machining down the lining by stitching in the ditch at the waistline.  But then I thought WWRD (What Would Roisin Do?), stuck on an episode of Elementary and hand sewed it down.



Roisin and Nic are such a lovely couple and I'm proud to count them as friends. Wishing them all the best in their future married life together! And I can't wait to see the wedding dress roisin is making!

32 comments:

  1. Cute dress! I really love the nautical fabric and it looks like you got the fit right. :)

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    1. Thanks tiffany! So many gorgeous dresses o my blog roll at the moment!

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  2. Super cute and great fit! Love the fabric you chose - it'll be perfect for summer!

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    1. Thanks Brooke. Fits right in with my wardrobe architect plans too!

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  3. Gorgeous fabric and a really cute dress. You have done Roisin proud! Hope you are feeling better now! X

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  4. I hope you're feeling better! Gorgeous dress, I love that print. And well done for going back and perfecting the fit, I get put off if I don't get it right first time

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    1. I am thanks Katy! I liked the other versions I saw so much and it's a great basic bodice so I thought it was worth going back!

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  5. Squeee this is super cute. AHOY THERE! :-) And oh no, bugs are the worst. Hope you're feeling better

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  6. I love the fabric! So sorry you were sick over Easter - hope you're feeling better now.

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  7. This is a very cute dress Joanne! I think the fit on this dress is much better. I love the pop of color with your red shoes!

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    1. Thanks Kathy! I love red shoes! They aren't heels like roisins but this is how I will wear it!

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  8. I'm glad that you went back to the pattern as it is such a good one. Lovely dress and the fit looks great.

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    1. Thanks claire. I'm really glad I went back to it!

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  9. Aw I'm so glad you made it in time! It's a great tribute to that veritable queen of dresses, Miss Roisin - and I am glad you got the fitting issues sorted! :) Lovely job!! :)

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  10. Lovely dress! I'm glad you gave this pattern another try.

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  11. This looks so great! I'm glad you persevered because it was definitely worth it.

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  12. I love your dress!! I don't have a nautical dress of my own, time I rectified that I feel!! Really must get myself the Emery pattern too!!
    PS - how good is Elementary? One of my favourites!

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    1. everyone needs a nautical dress! emery is pretty good too! i love elementary! I'm all about johnny lee miller (and i love that there's no romantic entanglement between holmes and watson - i was dreading that!)

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  13. Yay to handsewing and Elementary (gosh I love Lucy Liu so much) and boo to bugs. I'm really impressed that your persevered to get this in on time, and it really is beautiful. Of course I love the fabric and it works so well as an Emery - good work on nailing the fitting! You're lovely my dear, I'm so glad to know you and so is Nic! xxx

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  14. That fabric is awesome, well done on the fit! Elementary is one of my favourite programmes to hand sew to, maybe his razor sharp wit keeps me on my toes?

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  15. Great dress and awesome fabric, I just used a Michael Miller fabric myself, it has lifebouys on it. I do love a good nautical theme! I love your styling with the red shoes.

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    1. thank you! i have another nautical fabric coming up soon! nautical seems to summery to me. now we just need the weather to go with it!

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  16. This is an epically awesome dress! So glad you wore it during MMMay x

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