Handmade Hunchback Horror

I am not happy with this frock.

Well that's sort of a lie. Also I should stop being a negative nancy so let's focus on the positives first eh?

- I made a dress - my first one since December. It didn't take me that long. Yoicks!

- I freestyled the neckline and it looks nice. Woo!

- It's made from a pair of fricking curtains which cost me a whopping £2.49 from a charity shop. Mint!

Yup, one of the skirt pieces is the wrong way round. I realised before cutting.

- It's nice fabric (not sure of the name - it's sort of waffley looking. Same as my Paddington skirt anyway). I love working with that stuff. No stupid fraying. Wheee!

- It's pretty, right? Yay!

- I DID SLEEVES. CORRECTLY. FIRST TIME. Huzzah!!

Bad points:

- Unless I pose like this, I look like an actual square. A plump one. Dunno what I did wrong but it doesn't fit or look the same way that my other 2444's do and belts don't help. Booooo.

- It does not fit at all on the back. AT ALL. I must have a weirdly short torso - 2444s finish too high up my neck so I always cut the back neckline a bit shorter. They don't usually look this baggy and weird though. I put extra massive darts in and it helped but it still looks peculiar and hunchbackish. Methinks the pattern piece needs altering to actually fit me before I go back and attempt making any more. Don't actually know how to do that though. Oh well.

Meh, I'll probably just wear it anyway.

At least nothing is wrong with the delightfully sparkly shoes I've got on. Everyone needs lovely green flats in their life. The same applies to green heels - instant mood enhancer! And when your frock makes you look a bit hunchbacked, you need all the help you can get.

A Festive Frock

I made my Christmas party dress this year. Hark at me!



Mooching around Dunelm in October, I came across Christmas fabric and rather fell in love with this vintage inspired print fabric. I pondered hard - the house is sucking up all my spare cash at the mo and really, I could have just worn a frock I already had, couldn't I?

However, Christmas needs new clothes. It's the law. Honest it is. New pjs for Christmas Eve are an absolute must (this may perhaps be a Scouse thing but I reckon it should be an everyone thing) and you have to have something pretty to wear on the big day itself. Same rule kinda applies to the work do.

T'was an excellent bargain as it turns out. The shop assistant and I were both in rather dozy form and I waltzed out of the shop, went home and only then discovered that although I'd asked for 3m, she'd given me 4m and only charged me for 2m!



As for the final result, I freely admit that the satin trim did not work properly. I might have had plans for the frock in mind since the autumn but I wasn't organised enough to buy any proper bias binding and this ribbon did not want to get pressed into service as makeshift bias binding. I ended up just stitching it straight on and it's gone all wonky. The girls assured me that it looks like it's meant to be a ruched sort of trim neckline and I'm going with them on this.

I made it in a day though, minus the time spent going into town for lunch and to watch a live screening of The Crucible (and holy heck, that's a long play!) and I'm pretty impressed with myself for that. I haven't sewed anything for months and I thought I might have forgotten how to do it.




Dress - handmade, Simplicity 2444
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Heels - Shelly's



Also, yes, not great pics. I take so flipping long to get ready for a night out that there's never any time left to set the camera up and take proper outfit photos.

The frock goes smashingly with a beard though!

Potter, Peter & Puddleduck

Another day, another rediscovered dress...



I hadn't forgotten about this Beatrix Potter dress exactly. You can't really forget that Peter Rabbit is living in your wardrobe, can you? It's more that it was lurking in the sad end of my wardrobe with the size 12 dresses that sort of fitted at one point and now definitely don't fit. It's worth trying them on every now and then though, just to see if they surprise you.



This did! Ok, it could do with being a bit less tight over my dreaded lower stomach area but at some point in my life I need to stop caring about that. It ain't going away without a tummy tuck. I did have to do a bit of a mincey wiggle around the office all day due to the fit of it but that's probably partly due to the style. I never wear shift dresses so I'm not used to having my legs confined like that.

It's been almost two years since I last blogged it and considering I haven't dieted since then, I don't think the fit looks that much different. Bit tighter, yes, but if a handmade shift dress still fits you then things aren't too bad.

Dress - handmade, mostly by Char with some feeble assistance by me
Cardi - Debenhams
Shoes - Irregular Choice Baby Beauty, gift.

A Day at the Races

As you may be able to tell from the backdrop of these photos, I went to the races yesterday. I love racing and I love Aintree. There's no other place quite like it. Even though it wasn't Ladies Day (that's today), everyone was still dressed up to the nines. It's Liverpool: we don't need an excuse to frock up.

However, in the space of about 50 yards, I saw three girls in the exact same dress. It was a very pretty dress and clearly wasn't from Primark or anywhere like that, but ooof, you don't want to get glammed up for the races only to discover you look like everyone else, do you?

I didn't have that problem. I made my dress from a curtain. There wasn't going to be anyone else wearing this!

This is yet another Simplicity 2444 - I'm not bored of it yet! I fell in love with this fabric solely because it reminds me of some orange floral curtains that lived in the house I grew up in. It came in a massive chunk from ebay. I think it was about £15 for almost 5 yards and there's loads left to make some actual curtains with. Woop!

There are many, many shades of yellow, orange and green in this fabric but I wanted the detailing to match the daffodils which I'd centred the bodice around, so I went for a pretty lemon yellow satin ribbon and bias binding.

The pretty yellow shoes and cute clutch bag are totally not the same shade of yellow as the dress details but what the hell. They kinda match each other and they go with some of the dress, even if it's not the daffodils. The colours below are a wee bit iffy though - the photos above are a better idea of what they actually look like.

Dress - handmade
Blazer - Warehouse via charity shop
Bag - Jacques Vert via charity shop
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Flats - Koah 'Ginny'

Look at my enormous bet. Ha! This was the one day I should have done a placepot. Everything I picked came in the first three but I wasn't betting each way, wah wah wah... I would have won about a squillion pounds with a placepot. Damn it.

I had a very lovely day out with my Dad though and that's the main thing. He gets special credit for taking my outfit photos, although not so much credit for making me giggle and pull ridiculous faces. No idea what I'm doing here!

#sewdollyclackett

Afternoon all! I have been at the sewing machine again. Don't all fall off your chairs with shock.

I've been meaning to get back into it a bit more but time and energy have both been issues. That fabric stash was a-calling my name though and then I saw the #sewdollyclackett challenge. Time to get my foot back on the pedal and join in! It's such a fab idea and I flipping loved Roisin when I met her in Warwick last year. If I could sew as well as her I would be a very happy lady.

I know people will be making far superior, more colourful and jaunty creations than my humble monochrome toile print dress but I was working within certain limits here.

a) I am shit at sewing.

b) I can only make one pattern.

c) I am poor and can't afford to buy any amazing funky fabric. This was the best thing in my fabric stash.

d) Did I mention I'm shit at sewing? My most used phrase whilst making this dress was "Arghhh you t****y t*****y t**t!!" (aimed at the sewing machine).

I'm hoping that the fact it's a Simplicity 2444 will score me some Brownie points. Plus Roisin is all about encouraging people to improve their sewing skills and she was mega helpful when I had my first solo crack at dressmaking with the polka dot frock. This is only the second dress I've made by myself and I think I've got a bit less shit at the whole sewing malarkey whilst attempting it, so that's all good too.

I actually felt confident enough to work in a few tweaks and v. minor alterations. As always, I hacked a chunk off the skirt length (I am a midget) but I also decided to go with a contrast waist bow rather than making it from the same fabric as the frock. Et voila, some beautiful black satin ribbon:



LOOK, I DID BIAS BINDING TOO AND EVERYTHING!



It was nowhere near as difficult as I expected and I really love the contrast it gives to the neckline and armholes on this frock. Pretty! Bless Char for texting me a helpful diagram of how to apply it to the fabric.

Hopefully some extra bonus points will be won for wearing one of my fave pairs of Irregular Choice shoes with it. These Bowtiful heels are so surprisingly easy to wear all day. Love 'em.



D'you want closeups? It was an awkward day to photograph it and some of the colouring is a bit off here - the fabric is very black and white, not washed out. But we have a horse and a pump:



A chateau!



And an eavesdropping bovine.



In true Dolly Clackett spirit, all handmade dresses should be given a name. I hereby christen this The Lurking Cow frock.

Project Polka Dot

I MADE A FROCK! ALL BY MYSELF!

Why yes, I am shouting about it. I'm flipping proud of myself.

At least, I am now.  It's taken a while to appreciate the finished article, mostly because it took me about nine years to make it and I'd been staring at polka dots so long that I was sick of the very sight of them.

Why did no-one tell me that cutting all the pieces out takes so long?  I naively thought it'd take about half an hour to snip a few bits of fabric.  Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, good one Alex. Admittedly I had the twin handicaps of a marauding cat getting in the way and an utter inability to get my head around patterns (I take one look at the instructions and my brain goes NERRRGGGHHHHHHHHH), but still.

Helpful.

 I was drained. Drained, I tell you.  The pieces remained cut out but unsewed for a good number of weeks before I could muster up the energy to crack on with it. Never let it be said that I'm quick to finish a project.  Then when I did start, I reckon I spent more time moaning about how hard it was than actually sewing.  God love all of you who put up with me during the process.

Those of you who can actually sew are probably laughing at my utter feebleness.  It's not even a complicated pattern. But trust me, when you don't really know anything about sewing and are still a bit shit at the basic stuff like, ooh, sewing a straight line, it's HARD. So it took me ages to finish it.

I did, eventually.  Yay me, right? Celebrations all round, wearing it to bed because I loved it so much? Not really. I'd been looking at the bloody thing so long that I honestly wasn't excited about the fact I'd eventually finished it. I sewed the final stitch, ironed it, flung it on a hanger and went to bed feeling a weird mixture of disappointment and relief.  (I've been assured that this is normal with crafty projects)

It's now a few weeks later and I'm sure you'll be happy to know that the feeling of gloom has lifted. I love my frock!

I don't particularly love these pictures of it though - it was a Bad Face Day. Also, apologies for the fuzziness. The picnic bench I prop the camera on was in the sun: the brick wall was in the shade. It's not a good combo, even when you edit the crap out of the photos afterwards.  I only had ten minutes to grab the photos though so it's this or nothing.

I shall attempt to distract you from the crappy photos with better ones.

Look, look, POCKETS.

And look, look, darts and pleats. I'd never done either of them before I started this.

Dress - Simplicity 2444 (with a thinner waist bow and about 4 inches off the length)
Cardi - Topshop
Heels - Dorothy Perkins sale

If the frock looks familiar, it's because I also have it in toile and Victoria Plum fabric, courtesy of Char. She gave me the pattern and told me it'd be easy to make it myself this time. HA! Bet she was regretting that when I was trying to get her to explain darts to me via a stream of stressy texts.

Handmade Perfection

This time, a fortnight ago, I was a little bit narked.  See, I had this amazing Beatrix Potter duvet cover.  Char had a pattern for a frock that we knew fitted me and looked nice.  Ideal combination, so you would think.  Well you would be wrong.  Could we turn said duvet cover into said frock?  No.  There was not enough fabric to make the skirt.  I may have sworn a bit.  Ok, a lot.  But all was not lost as we made this frock with it instead (and although it may come across otherwise in that blog post, I actually did do quite a lot of the sewing of it!).

In fact, all was very far from lost.  A quick look through the fabric stash turned up something else.

 My charity shop trips always include a good rummage in the bedding/fabric section.  Most of what you'll find in there is not good - hideous old curtains and bobbly duvet covers abound - but the odd gem can be found, and it can usually be turned into something else.  I am yet to discover any Wombles bedding (this is probably a good thing as I may implode with excitement if I do) but a couple of things have come close.  Victoria Plum anyone?

I still love the fact that Angela Rippon wrote the Victoria Plum books.  Delightfully random.  They're one of those almost-forgotten things from my childhood, so when I discovered a ginormous duvet cover covered in Victoria Plum, robins and bunnies, I was rather pleased.  I was even more pleased when Char decided to take it away with her and turn it into a frock for me. A frock of sheer glory.  With POCKETS and A BOW and A BIG SWIRLY SKIRT.

Is she not amazing?  I bloody love that girl.

Dress - made by Char. Did I mention she's amazing?

Cardi - New Look

Shoes - Irregular Choice, present

ETA - Pattern update! It's Simplicity 2444, and is the little pencil sketch version on the left of the packet, with a few teensy tweaks.

Once Upon A Time...

...There was a girl named Alex. She found a rather amazing Beatrix Potter duvet cover (originally a curtain from the looks of things) in a charity shop. She wanted to make it into a frock but alas she was scared of patterns.  Weirdly, hopelessly scared of them.  All those lines and little triangles and baffling instructions that went along the lines of "on wrong side, pin one piece of seam binding to each back section, centering over lower large circle" made her head boggle.  Luckily she had a fairy godmother to call on in the form of Char.

Two days filled with much honking (don't ask), much removing Oscar from his new favourite sleeping spot on top of the pattern pieces, much letting out of the side seams on the frock when it turned out not to fit over Alex's arse, much patient explaining on Char's part, a LOT of coffee and cake and, lo and behold! A frock was created!

And she lived happily ever after with it, safe in the knowledge that it fitted better and looked less wrinkled in real life than in the photos, and also that she could sort of sew a little now.  But patterns still made her a bit boggly.

Jemima Puddleduck under the boobs.

Mrs Tiggywinkle and Peter Rabbit on the skirt

and an unidentified mouse.  There are also some guinea pigs on there.  Not quite sure why. 

Frock - handmade
Cardi - Gap (was originally about 6 inches longer but someone put it in the tumble dryer)
Shoes - New Look
"Once Upon A Time" Ring - MerCurios
Necklace - Accessorize