I love an excuse to dress up, and to sew, so the chance to go to another RAF AC Squadron Dining In means – another dress 🙂

I hadn’t liked wearing a shawl (to cover shoulders throughout the meal) last time, so wanted a dress which covered them anyway. Hours trawling the internet and patterns and I picked this one, the Vogue Badgley Mischka.

I visited a few of my usual fabric shops and eventually at Leon’s in Chorlton found a beautiful blue sequinned velvety fabric. Unfortunately I only saw it when another customer had picked it up…. Fortunately for me she wasn’t sure how much she wanted, and had to leave it to go find out. She had estimated roughly 3-4m, which is what I needed too, and there was about 7-8m left on the roll. We unrolled the whole roll for my fabric to be cut, as there were actually some faults in it, which we managed to avoid for my 3.6m. I said I feel guilty leaving the bad bits, but the lady serving didn’t seem concerned!! You can’t quite see the lovely colour and sparkle in these pics:

Anyway the pattern pieces are HUGE, and needed to be cut out and stuck together, and then didn’t quite fit on my table. (We do have extra inserts for the table up the loft… maybe I should try and find them next time). Cutting out the fabric really was a nightmare, because it is also heavy. I had to pin and cut a piece at a time. Which meant no room for any error or rearranging pieces to save fabric (which I normally do!).

I think I must have been cursing a bit too much at the time to take a photo of the biggest piece – but look at it on the pattern layout – piece 1 is huge!!

The pattern also involves a stretch lining for the dress (also pretty big, but without the gather), and a normal lining which was only for covering the sleeve seams.

Here are some photos of the progress. I am still bad at this…. I often just get carried away sewing 🙂

I took some pictures of it on then.. pre sleeves

I think I could have left it sleeveless! I made the bias binding from the normal lining fabric, which was just to cover the sleeve armhole seams, but in the end just couldn’t get it right (it seemed too narrow), so just overlocked them!

For some reason we ended up with no photos of us at the dinner wearing the dress. I had put a loop and a matching fabric covered button in the back seam so I could hook the train part up – which I did so I could dance the night away 🙂

I can’t wait for the chance to wear this again.

Version 2 of this dress, using a dark green satin, View E of the design, for Milly. Hopefully, although the fronts are the same, they will look sufficiently different for the Dining-In.

I am not very good at this blogging. I was so stressed out doing the straps I forgot to take any photos. In my defence, I was trying to get them all done before taxiing daughter to explorers. This is what they turned out like after the dreaded turning out and ironing:

I tried a couple of methods of turning them the right way round. First I tried leaving a long end, knotting that, and pulling it through with the weird long ‘crochet needle’, but the cotton kept snapping!! Their were screams, and I had to unpick some stitching at one point when it was stuck, with the hook in there! I then left a MUCH longer end, which went through the whole length of the strap before I stitched it. I just needed a normal knitting needle then to get it going and could just pull it through. This worked much better, although I won’t be trying it again in a hurry!!

The straps were basted onto the bodice, and then the lining attached. It is important to line the straps up correctly to align with the edge of the bodice. I did a quick check of that before trimming and snipping the seams to turn out the right way. Iron iron iron to get neat edges, and then gathering the bottom edge.

Next comes the mammoth task of sewing all the skirt seams – all seven of them, then trying to get M to try it on, to check okay before overlocking them, and hemming.

Next comes the scary bit of sewing the two bodice parts to the skirt and getting the bodice gathering right. More trying on – she doesn’t like that bit!!! Needed to check the fit, and position the straps. At this point I realised that I did need to adjust the gathers on one side of the bodice as they were a bit uneven, and adjust the positioning a bit as it was gaping a little on her. Also needed to take another centimetre off the back when putting the zip in.

I think it looks good. I have tried it on, but I can’t zip it up (I shouldn’t be surprised!!!). I am waiting for her to come back from a friend’s party before I can get her to try it on again.

I bought this fabric to go with the Spirit of Life crochet wrap, but in the end I thought this was a bit too bright, and probably distracted from the wrap itself. I fancied frills, so a fair bit of ruffling, but I just simply overlocked the edges. Obviously it has POCKETS!!! The top was made up, and doesn’t hang quite tight. I did wear this on holiday in Italy though, and it felt nice and summery.

I wanted some cropped trousers and couldn’t find any I liked in the shops. To be honest, I didn’t really look – I would much rather make my own!! I found some more camo fabric in Abakhan, and got this pattern to match. In hindsight I questioned my pattern choice – as the jeans pattern I made was McCalls, and I didn’t really like the cut – but then I decided for camo style cropped trousers, the loose fit would be good. The pattern was also really expensive in Abakhan. Not sure if their pricing or McCalls’!

So that I didn’t waste too much fabric if it went wrong I made the shorts first. Holiday booked for Italy, so needed some shorts for the warm weather (and that we were having here in UK too at the time!). I looked at the sizes, and while I would buy in a size 12, the measurements on here looked like I would need a size 16!! Wow! I should have made smaller, as the pattern obviously has plenty of ‘ease’ in it. Strangely I didn’t notice quite how baggy the shorts were, so made the trousers the same size. Main area that annoys me is the bagginess around the crotch. However, they are comfy, and were ideal to wear on the plane!!

The main reason for picking this pattern was the scalloped waistband. Lots of trimming so that the curve looks good when turned the right way out:

I think it was quite successful! For the second go for the trousers I changed the waistband size and made it overlap better at the front:

The cropped trousers have ties at the bottom:

Both finished:

I knew about the Air Cadets annual Dining In when I had my ‘fabric day’ back in May. I didn’t find a suitable silk on my travels, which is what I really want. But I found this fabric that I liked the design on that I thought could be suitable. It was only £3.95 a metre, so not expensive if it turned out I didn’t like it!!

I had already found a pattern, and was good and bought necessary notions while shopping!

It has turned out to be quite an easy make. I opted for view A. I marked up the positioning for the ribbon loops on the back and baste those into position. Sew front to back of main fabric and then lining, and then sew the main fabric to the lining, catching in the loops:

Then sew the side seams together.

Next stage is to sew all the skirt seams, leaving space for the zip. I found the fabric was starting to fray quite a lot, so I overlocked all of these. I think it finishes off the garment better when the seams are neatly overlocked.

Next join the top to the skirt. Again, once sewn and checked all neatly aligned correctly at the back, I overlocked this too. Zip was next. Nothing fancy, no hidden zip, just normal! However the pattern had said a 12″ zip… I think 12″ would be right for view D & E, but A, B, C would be fine with 8″. Then put the lacing in the back. I just need to hem it, and put a hook and eye at the top of the zip. I am pleased with this, and am going to make one of the other views for my daughter.