SEWN: THE QUIRKY DIVA

Meet The Quirky Diva.

Not me! The dress!

Though to be honest she makes me feel quite the quirky diva myself.

I am finally creating pieces that make me squeal with delight at how very me they are. I'm not joking about the squealing, I'm squealing now. It's getting a little embarrassing. I'm not normally a squealer...

This mind blowing fabric is a divine Collette Dinnigan brocade I scored from Pitt Trading*.

But boy was she quite the diva. She actually sewed up beautifully, no slippery shenanigans and pressing quite nicely, though I only pressed the reverse side. Her diva-ishness showed up in her ability to unravel before your very eyes, her fraying eating away at my very modest 1cm seam allowance like a crazy thing at the lightest of handling. I am sooooooo thankful I didn't pre-wash and if you do I would definitely suggest overlocking/serging the raw edges prior to that process.

I decided to keep this dry clean only and skipped a pre-wash. I adooooooooore the hand of this fabric. Huge amounts of body and little to no drape. It was exactly what I had in mind for my Frocktails dress. I did not want to potentially lose those properties to a dunk in the sink.

Yep, you'll be seeing this just as I'm donning its gorgeousness and swanning off to Canberra Frocktails for an evening of cocktails, fun and frivolity (and a fair bit of fabric stroking) with a bunch of other sewing/crafty bloggers. Squeeeeee! So much excitement!

And it's a remake! Did you pick it? It's another Traffic Stopper albeit with some alterations and deviations from the original (click on that blog link for further info).

I removed all topstitching...

Utterly perfect neckline

... instead blind handstitching the neckline bias binding to the inside.

Definitely a TNT sleeved dress pattern for me - perfect fit across the shoulders

And let me tell you - I'm converted. This is the most perfect neckline I've created. I'm sure sending that neckline through the machine twice with completely machine-stitched bias facings just lends itself to significant stretching and warping of the neckline, even when I'm careful and have stay stitched (which I always do).

I finished all seams with my overlocker. I originally considered French seams, but this fabric is quite lusciously heavy and I wasn't convinced it would work. The overlocking has kept those raw edges perfectly well-behaved.

You'll notice I also omitted the neck slit and sewed the top sleeve seam slit closed whilst retaining the beautiful tulip shape to the sleeve (also hand stitching the hem).

I envisaged echoing the tulip shape of the sleeve by creating a definite A-line shape to the skirt. I achieved this by grading the pattern from the size 8 bodice out to size 12 at the lower hem. I knew this fabric would hold the shape well and I'm so pleased with the result. (NB: excuse all the "penguin" poses as I was trying to show the full shape!).

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but this is, for me, my biggest ever WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO! It's everything I would want in a winter appropriate cocktail dress that I'd likely never find in store, in a perfect fit and at a price that allows me to get the cocktails in. Next up.... the matching leather clutch.

I'm off to Frocktails now...

*Thanks go to Pitt Trading who provided my choice of fabric and notions free of charge for this project in exchange for images of my completed make for their use. Opinions are all my own.