NewLook 6048: The Avengers dress

We had a very quick day trip to Melbourne recently and I managed to duck into a couple of fabric shops. The kids each picked out some fabric in Rathdowne, the daughter picked out this Avengers one which was meant to be boxer shorts until she realised she could have it in a dress instead!

I'd only bought 1m (and its only 112cm wide) but she was determined to have a circle skirt so this is a 1/2 circle skirt squeezed onto the fabric (good thing she likes shorter skirts!). The bodice is a blue sateen I had leftover and the lining is a stretch poplin inside the bodice and a poly lining in the skirt.

Size wise, I made a muslin in a sz 14 and it was pretty good. I had to petite the back and take a wedge out of the side bodice and also take it in at the top of the front princess seam. Really I think I should have cut a size smaller and done a small FBA, I think it would have fit better and its what I'll be doing next time.

She badly wanted zipper pockets, I was originally going to do inseam zipper pockets but couldn't work out a way of doing them neatly so did them this way instead. It actually turned out pretty neat, I did the larger pockets bags that I like and it all sits nice and flat and secure.

It turned out pretty cute and now we are on the lookout for any spiderman/superman fabric so she can have more superhero dresses!

NewLook 6048 vs. Cake 0169

When we were in Brisbane I fell in love with a Hell Bunny dress. At the time it was too much money and I didn't have time to try it on so decided to copy cat it.

Its a real frankenpattern, the skirt is the pavlova circle skirt and the bodice started life as Newlook 6408. I'm not sure how much of that pattern is left though! I used my bodice block to adjust the princess seams, added a midriff band and shirred the back. I added on the bodice collar band too (is that what they are called?)

The fabric is from fabric.com its a little thicker than I would have liked, almost feels like a soft quilting cotton but it did sew up beautifully and has a nice drape on the skirt.

I self lined the bodice and left the skirt unlined

I cheated and got the piping from fabric.com too and the buttons are self cover ones.

I'm really happy with the fit, I did a couple of muslins for the bodice - I'm finally realising they take less time than fiddling with the fit later on! Its the first time I've really used the bodice block to adjust a dress and it worked surprisingly well and lots quicker than pin fitting and doing a FBA. The front could probably be dropped by a little but I've only tacked the straps at the back so I might loosen them slightly yet.

Twirly!

Newlook 6048

We had a couple of nice hot days last week which got me all excited about Summer getting here so I thought I'd make another dress (of course its raining again now!).
I've made Newlook 6048 once before, in a gingham with the original neckline. This one is inspired by Gerties gorgeous Coming up Roses dress with the shirred back. I followed her directions on how to shirr and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I changed the original sweetheart neckline to be straight and used a bias strip




I've been lusting over the Lonsdale straps so I thought I'd convert these plain straps to tie in the back as well



The fabric is a quilting cotton, I feel like I've broken a big rule by using it, but I've got to say it sewed up beautifully, has a nice drape to it, and I can never resist polkadots let alone teal polkadots!



The shirring is great, makes the dress so comfortable to wear!



I finished off the bodice by lining the front with a cotton poplin



I originally bias bound the hem to then slipstitch it, but I liked the contrast of the bias binding enough that I left it, I figure I can always hem it up later




This is the last dress for a while, I really need to make some more pants. I got the material today and traced off Vogue 8751 and Hot Pattern 1054 I want to muslin them up over the weekend - I usually tissue fit then pin fit, but pants are a bit trickier and I'd rather take the extra time on them.