The Texan flower frock

So its been a while!

As part of my MeMadeMay pledge (to wear totally me made except underwear), I added that I wanted to make 4 new garments and write 4 blog posts. I always find that however much I enjoy doing something, sometimes I need a push to do it if I haven't done it in a while!

I have been getting into the whole decluttering/ minimalism thing recently (I have marshalled my thoughts into a separate post to come) but overall I want to use patterns and fabric I have already rather than buying more. So this uses a piece of fabric i bought from Joanns when I was in Dallas last year. I met up with Brooke from Custom Style and she kindly took me shopping (and burrito eating), armed with loads of coupons so I could take full advantage of the cheap prices vs the UK.

This is a quilting cotton in a gorgeous dark floral print.  The selvage says it is a Joanns exclusive. I don't have an issue with quilting cotton for dresses but I have generally used "designer" ones. This is definitely less good quality than those. It's much stiffer and I found a few flaws in it (after i had cut unfortunately!). So it needed a pattern that didn't need drape and I chose the Deer and Doe Belladone which i picked up in their Black Friday sale back in November. The a-line skirt works fine in the stiffer fabric.

I didn't realise the hands on waist was causing  back wrinkles and hubby obv didn't notice (grr bad bloggerhusband)

I may be the only blogger who has made this up with the plain back! I had intended to make the open back version but when I muslined I wasn't sure that it was very me. I might make another version for summer with the open back though.

I did my usual round of alternations - a small FBA, lengthening the bodice by 1.5", lowering the bust darts by 1" and lengthening  the skirt by 2". After muslining I lowered the bust darts another 1".  

In the final version, the bodice could probably be 1" longer and the skirt would hit slightly closer to the knee. However it is totally wearable as is and I'll make this change on future versions.

Ignore derpface please

Sorry for the phone pics in this post. On the day we took these we went to Windsor, hubby brought his Go Pro and assured me the pics would be brilliant. However if you have ever seen your backside in a fisheye lens, you'll realise why people normally use them for landscapes! So back up phone photos it is!

Plantain challenge!

I recently found a fabric shop (worrying close to work as far as my bank balance is concerned) with loads of fabric on sale for either £1 or £2 a metre.

I picked up loads of knits as my wardrobe is lacking in me-made long sleeved tees, with the plan to try out the Grainline Hemlock and see if i liked the looser silhouette.  And then Deer and Doe brought out the Plaintain tee which is another free download.

It's a loose-ish fitting casual tee with long and short sleeved options, elbow patches and a scoop neck.  And there's a competition!

The fabric I chose for was a navy and white striped heavyish weight knit with an interesting ribbed texture on the (plain navy) reverse side.  I wanted to play with the reverse side with some accents, so I drew a line on the pattern piece parallel to the shoulder seams, finishing at the front armhole notch.  On the back I went straight across to the lower back notch.  Of course you need to add seam allowances onto these so you can sew them together!  I cut the neckband and elbow patches as normal but used the reverse side.  At the last minute, I decided to add bands of navy around the cuffs.  I used the same method as the Renfrew cuffs with a folded band which also saved on hemming time!  The hem is twin-needled.

I sewed the whole thing on my overlocker, just using my sewing machine for topstitching.  I doubted my ability to get the neckband on correctly with the overlocker but it worked really well and was so fast!

Once I was almost finished I tried it on and felt the loose fit around the waist and hips wasn't especially right for me, so I took a wedge out at each side seam from waist to hip - it ended up being about 3" taken out at the hemline.  Apart from this, I sewed up a straight size 40.  I don't normally wear tunic length tops so I decided not to add to the length as I usually would to make things fit. 

The pattern lends itself really well to customisation -  Anna from Paunnet has made a really cute dress version, so I'm hoping to see some lovely versions popping up on the blogosphere this week.  Have you seen Rachel's deer and doe elbow patches?  Amazing!

Are you entering the competiion?  Link me up to your version if so - I'd love to see!