Sunshine Through The Clouds

Well hello beautiful strangers!

As you may have noticed, I took a little unannounced break from blogging whilst I got myself moved and sorted into my new place - of which I'm now very happy in with the addition of my brand new sewing desk (more on that in a later post!)

But for now I wanted to play catch-up a bit with some sewing projects, this one being the last thing I made in my last house, which gives me a little bit of an emotional attachment to it.
It's pretty lucky that I honestly think it's my best project to date, and quickly becoming a favourite dress!

So I've gone a bit colour-crazy recently and I've had this idea of a red and yellow colour combination in my head for a few years, and it's only really now that I've actually decided to act on it. I got myself down to Rolls and Rems to scout out my trusty 1-inch cotton gingham (you can see everything I've made with it under the gingham tag) in a slightly offensively bright shade of yellow.

The pattern to this dress is another variation on the No Cock Nor Tails pattern I drafted a good few years back - with the baggy nipples of the Big Ol' Black dress rectified somewhat unsuccessfully as it's still just a touch tight on the bust.
The skirt is old faithful - the pleated dirndl. It's basically a copy of the Check, Please dress in yellow instead of red. But once I like a pattern I really do stick to it!

To keep a bit of a differentiate between the Check, Please dress and this one I added my new favourite trim in the world - POM POMS! from Frumble Fabrics onto the neckline, hem and pockets. I always find it amusing how such a small amount of trim can really make a garment pop - and I find people seem to go a little nuts for pom pom trim.

Other than the fitting issues of the failed FBA adjustment from my last version from this dress, I think this self-drafted pattern is really teaching me about my body - how my shoulders slope and why the straps don't stay in one place, where my waist actually sits and the way thing such as belts sit on them, and how the top of my back slopes and why I always have a gape in the back of my dresses.

This dress features a lovely scoop back that looks fine when I'm relaxed, as you can see below, but as soon as I move the thing can fit a small dog between me and the fabric - and although I like small dogs, thats not my preferred way of carrying animals.

However, my hair looks pretty amazing though, so we can focus on that instead of fit issues, right?