Cute Sheep, Poisonous Plants and a French Dress.

Proud moment of the week: I made a Belladone!

I bet you think I’m talking about Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna right? (Because I know my readers are down with the latin names for plants and stuff). The name “bella donna” means “beautiful woman” in Italian and the plant got this name because it was used in eye-drops by women to dilate the pupils to make them appear seductive. Can I hear a collective What the hell??

No no, don’t worry, this post is not about the poisonous plant which causes delirium and hallucinations, the sewing people among you will already have suspected that I have indeed made a Deer & Doe Belladone dress! There is nothing poisonous about this darling dress, as you will see from a quick search on Pinterest, thousands of ladies all over the world have made their versions of this pretty French pattern.

My first stop for any sewing project is Bobby Sewing, Joanna has an impressive range of fun and colourful fabrics and always points me in the right direction. This time I was doubting between the classy and glam Dynasty Scallop and the Mini Sheep both from Timeless Treasures. If I’m honest, I have to admit that I knew all along I would go for the sheep, the only reason I hesitated was that the Dynasty Scallop would make such a beautiful traditional NYE glam party dress, with it’s elegant 1920’s pattern in gold and dark turquoise. Joanna swiftly reminded me that I don’t do traditional and so off I went with my two and a half meters of Mini Sheep loveliness!

I was very lucky to be able to take part in a workshop with Lady Lieke from Bouquet of Buttons and Miss Ellen from Studio Elf, I certainly would not have been able to do it without their help! As you can see above, Ellen’s dress turned out wonderfully, I love her gold/pink shiny piping on the waist. You can see some photos from our mini-workshop in an article I wrote for Bustle, you did know I’m a fancy-pantsy writer now right?

I decided to add a black lining to the entire bodice of the dress because I like it like that. I also added yellow piping to almost every visible edge because I felt like it. (You can do whatever you want if you sew, next step: world domination!) Both of these pattern changes made it very complicated to arrange the overlapping shoulder pieces and I’m not sure I did it all in the right order, (didn’t read the instructions eeeek) but lets just say; on the outside everything looks fine!

When I made my first skirt and sewed it up forgetting to first add the pockets, I vowed to never again make anything without pockets. This dress is no exception, and what beautiful pockets they are, if I do say so myself!

Thankfully, I managed to get the dress finished in time for NYE, but also in time to enter the December Sew It Up Party Dress Sewing competition. I was lucky enough to win their last Sew Along competition with my skirt without pockets! I’m really looking forward to seeing the other entries! YAY for self-made party dresses!

The end result is truly on fleek, I’m gonna be the belle of the ball on NYE (see what I did there?).

Ta Daaaaa….

Advertentie