After having such an exhausting week last week - one where I didn't even want to look at my sewing machine, let alone sew - I had a very happy stitching-filled weekend. Nic had work to be getting on with and we didn't have any plans, so I made three dresses. My fabric stash is looking woefully thin now and my wardrobe is pretty fat, which is how I like it! It does mean that I'm a bit behind in blogging new makes though, so I guess there'll be a bit of a glut of them over the next wee while.
This little beauty has been waiting her turn for a while. I originally made this dress to wear to the Goldhawk Road meet-up, but then my Beauty School Dropout dress popped up and relegated this one to the bench. This is pathetic, right, but that actually makes me a little bit sad. I get so attached to inanimate objects. Like, when my Daddy fixed my old iBook at Christmas I was thrilled - not because the computer is brilliant (it's so old and slow) but because I am so very attached to it. I'm a dipstick. Anyway, the dress! I hope it can forgive me...
The Janene dress - By Hand London Elisalex bodice and a circle skirt, and worn with Irregular Choice No Place Like Home shoes
I had to name this dress after Janene - you might know her as Ooobop! She talked me into splitting this 5 metre length of stretch cotton sateen with her when we met at the big meet-up in April. It isn't something I would have been drawn to immediately but I was a little awestruck to be in the presence of such fabulousness, and it was busy in the shop! I think it came from A1 fabrics, but these lengths seem to be available in most of the shops on the Goldhawk Road. Janene made hers into an Elisalex dress pretty quickly but I sat on mine for a while, unsure of the best purpose to put it to. I didn't want to totally copy Janene but I do love this bodice, so I stuck a circle skirt on it. Job's a good'un!
That wind-machine look...
Obviously I have very little at this stage to say about either this bodice or a circle skirt! At Janene's suggestion, I self-lined the bodice. This fabric has quite a lot of stretch to it, you see. I machine hemmed the skirt, which is unusual for me. I usually enjoy hemming by hand, but for some reason I couldn't be faffed with this one, and made the executive decision that some machine stitching would be basically invisible on this print anyway.
I'm pretending to be enjoying the view of the - admittedly very pretty - River Leam here, but really I'm feeling a bit awkward because this bridge is a road bridge and there was loads of traffic going past! The things we do for blogs...
One of the really cool things about this dress is that the weight of the fabric means that the skirt sticks out in a very pleasing way. I love wearing circle skirts but sometimes they can be a bit droopy without a petticoat under them. Not this one, though. I guess this one would be pretty mega with my petticoat underneath, I haven't tried it yet though!
I let myself be talked into buying more of this stretch cotton at the last Goldhawk Road meetup, with some geometric blue roses on it. This time, I split the length with Rachel of My Messings. I'm happy to think of our twin dresses, each on opposite sides of the world! I haven't yet decided what to do with it, but it may just end up being another circle dress because I'm so pleased with how this one turned out.
Another selfie with my handsome photographer. He likes the dress, which is always a bonus!
So, that's my Janene dress! Thanks to Janene for spotting the fabric and splitting it with me - this is another dress that will remind me of happy times and lovely sewing friends. Being me, I will probably end up wearing this to work and to do the grocery shopping and stuff, but I do have a few weddings to go to next year and wouldn't this be a cute wedding outfit? But mainly, a cute "It's Wednesday and I need to wear something pretty to get me through the five meetings I have today" outfit?
I think, at this rate, I'm going to have to buy shares in By Hand London, eh?!
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