A Sunny Day Dress

I’ve finally completed my Alexander Dress from Grosgrain’s ‘A Frock By Friday’.  This is not an easy dress to sew so I loved the challenge of tackling it. It’s the first time I learnt I could cut open a dart, gather one side of it, sew it back to create cute sleeves like these. Grosgrain’s detailed and clear sewalong instructions made constructing this easier.

The sewing pattern for the bodice came from burdastyle’s Alexander Blouse.

I normally sew using a size 38 pattern but for this dress, I used a size 36. I elongated the center front seams by 1″ each, dropped the waistline by 2″ and lengthen the peplum by 4″, so it would hit the hips. I also added a fire engine red bias to the waistline before attaching the peplum as I thought that would accentuate the waistline and it would go well with the huge red buttons I used.

I didn’t use the free McCall pattern recommended by Grosgrain but the skirt pattern from a vintage sewing pattern. My overused vintage butterick B5032.

I thought they looked rather similar, but my vintage version might be narrower and I could save some trees 🙂 However, I did shorten the length and change all pleats to darts at the top of the skirt. The skirt is lined as cotton voile is a little sheer.

For the back of the dress, I used an invisible zipper but it does not start from the top but around chest level at the back. The top has a hidden button attachment (Are they called press studs?).

The fabric is from Anna Maria Horner’s collection and is extremely comfortable to wear. My favourite part of it is the front bodice with the pleats and red buttons.

I hope you like it too.

My weekend starts tomorrow as it is a public holiday in Singapore, so happy weekend in advance!

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A Shirtdress’ Day Out

I managed to take my dream photo today! A photo of my princess and I in our matching dresses! We were all dressed up for my  prince’s birthday celebration at his school.My prince’s actual birthday is in two days but we organized a small celebration today with his classmates, including his lil’ girlfriend from New Zealand (Don’t let him know that I told you:P). It was a surprise for him as non of us spoke about visiting his school when he was around. Even my husband took leave to join us in the surprise mission! I will never forget the grin on his face when he saw us and the big hugs we received. Here’s his royal highness eating one of the sinfully sweet cake toppers! Yikes! I hope he brushed his teeth thoroughly tonight.

One of his teachers saw my princess and I in matching outfits and asked if I got it in the same shop. She was very surprised when she found out that they were created by me. I was not surprised by her reaction though as people who sew clothes for the love of it are almost extinct on our urban land.

While I had to struggle with the stool and camera just to snap some photos on other days, my sweet husband  was around to capture the special moments today. We went to the park behind my prince’s school for these shots.

I have never noticed the tree behind us until today. It looked as if someone has painted green, yellow and red stripes on it with water-colour. This is the Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree and the stripes are a result of peeling bark from the tree. It looked amazing!

When I saw the tree, I remembered what my son said when he woke up this morning. That Jesus was painting slowly so that the sky turns brighter and brighter. What a wonderful and sweet description from a four-year old.

In the afternoon, my husband and I went on a date. We had delicious Hakata Ramen at Yoshimaru by the East Coast beach, watched a movie (Prince of Persia) and went shopping at Spotlight. I had to get those zippers and off course ended up with additional fabric and notions. It felt funny when I saw the floral fabric I had used to sew this shirtdress in its original cotton fabric bolt at Spotlight. My husband laughed when I quickly moved on to another fabric collection. Somehow, I didn’t know how to react in such a new situation and before I could ponder about it, we were at the cashier where the fabric on my dress was instantly recognized by the lady behind the counter! She was sweet and said the fabric has transformed into a pretty dress and asked if I got it tailored. When I told her I made it, she said it is a wonderful skill to have as tailoring would have cost over a hundred dollars. I guess I can take that as a compliment?

When we reached home, my princess was still in her dress. I looked at her and smiled. What a good day out.

A Frock By Friday Completed!

I followed Grosgrain’s A Frock By Friday last week but couldn’t sew on Wednesday and Friday so I had to complete two days’ sewalong today. Here’s the result and my very first shirt dress! My only deviation was the addition of green piping around the belt. Took ages to complete but I am pleased with it.

I couldn’t post more  photos as it started to rain after I took this shot and everything else turned out too blurry.  This was when I saw that there were some floral fabric left. I decided to do a refashioned shirtdress for my princess. The concept is based on Grosgrain’s Mohito Refashion Frock , only on a much smaller person. So, here is my little princess in hers.

Posing…

Playing…

Besides the rain, it has been a rather painful day for me. First, I got a cut on my finger when it accidentally  brushed past the blade I was using to cut the buttonholes. Next, I broke a nail 😦

Wished we had better weather. I  can only  dream of a photo of  my princess and I together in our dresses!