Monday, August 10, 2015

Frocktails red party dress

There are Saturday nights when you find yourself in your jimmiejams, eating chips on the couch and watching Bridget Jones's Diary for the 227th time. Those nights are balm to the soul, but not something that I'd generally find myself blogging about. Or admitting to. Please don't tell anybody that I can quote that entire movie. The shame, the shame!


Then there are the Saturday nights when you get to hang out with another 50 sewing bloggers, wearing a frock you have sewn up yourself, living the Frocktails dream! Guess which type of Saturday night I just had? Let's put it this way: being eaten by Alsatians whilst listening to Sad FM was *not* on the agenda!


Red Dress #1



It was a pretty darn fabulous night, and the dresses had to be seen to be believed. It was an honour to hang out with so many talented and wonderful ladies, and I got to meet so many people that I've admired for so long. If you'd like to see some great pics of the girls and their frocks, Poppykettle took some marvellous photos, so pop on over there and drool yourself silly at the gorgeousness on display.


I had a bit of a dress disaster prior to the event. I had started making Vogue 8900, and it was all going along swimmingly until it came to doing the side vents (which was the last bit I had to do, natch). Try as I might, I could not figure out a way to make (a) the bias binding fit and (b) get the vents to sit flat. After checking out other versions on Pattern Review, I discovered this was a common problem, but that wasn't going to help me when my dress had gone from hero to zero faster then you can say "Frocktails Panic!"


I had 3 days left to make a dress. On a zero budget. And it had to look fab. What was I to do???


Like any good seamstress, I hit up the stash. I found 1.5m of silk stretch blend, and then rummaged through my pattern collection to find a party-worthy pattern. Thankfully McCall's 6320 came to the rescue - I'd already made one version of this in a green cotton a few years back, so the sewing came easily. And whilst I may have been hand stitching the lining in at 6 in the morning on the day of the event, it was eventually done - phew!


No alterations were made to this dress, although I am kind of wishing that I had gone for the pleated sleeve option rather than the plain set in sleeve. Next time! It was so comfy to wear, and I felt suitably glam, which was great - in a room full of sewing wonders, you want to feel like you measure up (ha! bad sewing pun!) to all the talent surrounding you.


And let's give a round of applause to the stash, eh? In a year of frugality, having a little extra tucked away saved my bacon!


Project Details:
Pattern - McCall's 6320, version C
Fabric - 1.5m silk stretch blend from The Fabric Store
Notions - 35cm invisible zipper, hook and eye, lining and interfacing

15 comments:

  1. It sounds like an amazing night and your dress is an absolute last minute wonder :) Gotta love a good stash!

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  2. Talk about savings by the sewing bell - whatta dress to have ripped together at the last minute! Loved the red (stash shopping is the best). But Vogue 8900 - wow. Promise me you'll figure out and blog it? Those cutouts are awesome! (could you do like a facing thing instead, and hold it in place with a bit of topstitching??
    So lovely to see you again! x

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  3. Gorgeous Frocktails dress and amazing you whipped this up so fast. Sounds like it was a wonderful night.

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  4. You looked so elegant in your new dress. So well structured and sewn.
    What a fab night!

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  5. This is a show stopper!!! Can't believe it was a last minute make :D

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  6. What a frock! Lovely meeting you on Saturday night. So glad you were able to whip this up in time. Such a shame the cut outs didn't work.

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  7. You looked magnificent! I can't believe this was an emergency dress, very polished ;)

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  8. Lovely dress and greAt to meet you on Saturday. I can't believe that's a last minute back up dress, it's fab! I hope to see the vogue one though :)

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  9. Wowsers, nice back up dress!
    I love this red on you with all that beautiful pale skin on show. :)

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  10. love love loved your dress! and glad we got to have a litttle 'eco-chat' :)

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  11. I can quote that entire movie too! My husband won't watch it with me. The dress and lovely!

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  12. I loved your dress!And this is a show stopper.Thanks for shearing....
    party dresses

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  14. This is such an outstanding party dress! I can’t believe that you arranged it on the last minute. You look stunning in it. You know in my holiday party I also wore such beautiful red dress. This party had been arranged at the prettiest party places.

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