Twirly Teal

Happy Easter!!!

Hope you all had a fabulous time-4 day weekend isn’t bad is it?! (Although I get two weeks off so ha!)

Anyway, enough bragging. I made something new! And by something you know it’s a dress…

Here it is!

I got the fabric from my recent Walthamstow trawl, think it was £2 a metre or something ridiculous. I’ve still got about 0.5m-0.75m left! And no idea what to do with it. (Ideas anyone?)

The pattern is basically the Daisy Dress by Eliza M but I lengthened the sleeves.

The lining is soooooooooo gorgeously soft, and it drapes beautifully. I’m really pissed at myself that I didn’t pick up more in every colour. It was £1.40 p/m and comes in every colour imaginable. I wish I’d taken a photo of the lining before I attached because when I tried it on it looked like the most beautiful shift dress but so comfy to wear and I almost didn’t attach it. But I had to 😦

The ribbon belt is rubbish I know- it was all I had. If you can’t see it’s that really cheap feeling plastic-y type ‘ribbon’. I’m hoping to find a closer colour match in proper double-faced satin and then stitch it onto the dress, which obviously I didn’t do with this one because it SUCKS BALLS!!!

The hem was a ginormous pain in the arse. I’ve never hemmed lace before and it was horrible! I tried double turning it up and it didn’t press too well and looked bulky and gross, so ripped it out. Then I tried horsehair braid which was too heavy for the delicate lace so out that came too. Then I got out my rolled hem foot which seemed like the perfect solution except the lace kept getting stuck on the foot and after about 10 seconds that got annoying- so ripped that out too.

Before I continue I’d like to point out the hem totals nearly 5 metres!!!  So double turning it I did about halfway before ripping it out- 2.5m. Horsehair braid included sewing it twice so that’s 10m. The rolled hem foot I probably did about 0.5m. So that totals 13m of ripping out!! It took me over the whole of Ratatouille to take out just the horsehair braid! I nearly just cut it out and I’m so glad I didn’t because that would be the length of just a shirt at this point.

Finally, I went with bias tape. Seems like the obvious choice doesn’t it? DUH!!! Although I had to press and steam it like a bitch. It kept flipping up the other way so out came my tailor’s ham, or what I like to call my rolled up blanket, and I steamed and pressed the hem for about 30 minutes.

Finally though, I had something that, despite the tiny thread remnants, had an actual hem!!

Admire it, because almost a whole day went into that hem!

Usually with the Daisy dress I only do a 3/4 circle skirt rather than a full circle skirt but did a full one on this dress. Actually, I think a 3/4 would have looked better. But look how twirly it is!