Showing posts with label blue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blue. Show all posts

Monday 31 March 2014

Another Peter Pan top


It feels so nice to see your project finished and to be pleased with the result.
A few weeks ago I asked a friend of mine to draw a top or a dress she would like me to sew for her daughter as a present for her approaching birthday. She told me she liked the Peter Pan collar (from "Crazy Chevron" top) and that she also loved that blue fabric I had used for the "Ocean blue" dress. I had a little bit left of the fabric, just enough for a top. That's how this project started.






Her pretty daughter turnes five so I had to grade down from size 7 to size 5. This was the first time I practiced grading. I wasn't quite sure whether it would work well, but it turned out it did. The only correction I had to do was to raise the neckline.
To complete the look I made two fabric flowers. If you have been following my blog you probably know that I like to make matching accessories to the garments. It is weird because I like accessories, but rarely put any on, as I am usually in a rush and don't have time to rummage around.




The initial idea was to make one flower with one layer of blue petals and another layer of smaller petals from the other fabric on the top. But when I started making it, it failed to produce the look I wanted, so instead I made two separate flowers.
They were intended to be used for hair, but while I was taking photos of my friend's daughter, she came up with the idea to accessorize the top with them. I love it when something happens to be so versatile.


























Monday 17 March 2014

"Ocean Blue" dress


I can finally show you the dress I have been making for my seven-year-old niece. It's ready and on its way to its future owner. Now I am so curious to find how the dress fits her. I wouldn't be surprised if it is a bit large for her, but I was so concerned not to be too small, that I prefered to be on the safe side and make it larger.
For the dress I chose deep blue fabric, which I found very easy to work with. It is a good weight for a dress and drapes well. When I bought the fabric last summer I was told that it was cotton, but it looks to me more like polycotton.
This dress is one of those projects which I wasn't sure how they would end up looking. I didn't have much time to make the dress, so I decided to construct the bodices, the skirt and the sleeves and once the dress was ready to choose a decorative detail. I wanted to add a decorative detail because the dress would be made with single coloured fabric and that was a way to make it look more interesting.


I had a few options on my mind. The first option was to make a big fabric flower for the front bodice, the second option was to add some pleats on the front and the third option was to add either trimming or applique to the skirt. As you can see I chose the pleates in the end.


I opted for a back opening in order to make the dress easier to put on and also to add more effect.
You have probably noticed that all the buttons are different and the reason  is that I didn't have four buttons of this size that were the same. I actually like the look of them on the back.