Thursday, September 18, 2014

Frocktails Dress - The Sydney Edition


After the roaring success of Frocktails in Melbourne last year, this year we went interstate, and the lovely Kat organised for us to repeat the experience in Sydney.

The dress that I made for and wore to the Sydney Frocktails has been stewing in my mind for about a year now. I tried on the below dress in the Rachel Gilbert Store and sadly (but not surprisingly) I didn't fit. Ever since then I have been planing to use this inspiration to make a similarly fabulous dress...


Obviously the design itself is fairly simple; a shift dress with a centre front and centre back seam, with the left and right halves made from different fabrics; ruched chiffon for one half and sequins for the other.


The design is about where it's simplicity stops... anyone that follows me on instagram will know that the construction process was incredibly time consuming... (and apparently I'm a glutton for hand-sewing punishment when it comes to frocktails dresses)


I used my basic block pattern that I'd converted into a dress for my 2 metre challenge dress, but altered the neckline to suit.


Both halves of the dress are underlined in a drill fabric, with the chiffon hand ruched and stitched onto the underlining fabric (which I had stitched the darts into first). This was a very time consuming process, I definitely lost count of how long it took, but it was surprisingly relaxing to do.


After some trial and error of the best way to go about it, I decided that the best way was pins, pins, pins and more pins. I found it was quicker and more accurate to spend the time pinning each little tuck and then going through doing the stitches once it was all pinned. I also found it useful to pin the underlining flat onto my ironing board to hold everything flat and still while I was pinning.


Progress was slow and steady but I felt very accomplished once I'd finished the two pieces. I didn't cut the chiffon out until after I had ruched it on, at which point I cut out a rough seam allowance around the edge of the piece.


Overall with the construction I used a lot of techniques I learnt from the Couture dress craftsy course, like basting my stitching lines and basting the seams before stitching them properly. Unpicking my lines of basting was tricky though, apparently my stitching lines were extremely accurate and went almost exactly over nearly all of my basting.


For the sequined half and joining the two halves together I was glad to have hand basted the seams first, as it stopped any slippage. Sewing the sequins wasn't too bad, again I adopted the ethos of slow and steady. I did break one needle, and when cutting the sequined fabric made sure to wear glasses to protect my eyes (tip from Mel from her experience sewing sequins).


As is seems to be my ilk these days, and certainly fitting for a dress with so much hand sewing, I hand picked the zip into the centre back seam. And as shown in the picture above, it's barely visible. Definitely the best zip insertion method to choose for a dress like this, as the only other kind that wouldn't leave top stitching would be an invisible zip, which I'd be concerned about the ruching and sequins getting caught in the zip (and also the zip breaking, because, y'know, invisible zips suck)


Once the dress was in one piece, it was a massive mess on the inside (big seam allowances, lines of hand stiching, all sorts. So first I finished the arm and neck holes by hand basting the seam allowances down, then I hand basted all the rest of the seam allowances down to make it all sit nice and flat inside the dress.

 

Lastly, I added a lining. The lining served two very important purposes; firstly to make the dress look pretty and neat on the inside, and secondly because the sequins are horrifically scratchy, so covering up the sequins in the seam allowances was definitely essential.

I hand stitched the lining into the dress (are you seeing a theme here?). I pressed back the seam allowances, and did tiny careful stitches right at the edge of the fabric on the arm and neck holes, making sure that the lining was just on the inside of the dress so wouldn't be visible when wearing.

  

Along the zip opening I again pressed back the seam allowances and did little prick stitches about 5mm away from the edge along the zip. I did this rather than stitches at the edge of the lining to hold the lining flat and away from the zip to reduce the chances of it getting caught in the zip when opening or closing the dress.

 

The last step was the hem, which I bagged to allow for movement when wearing the dress and reduce strain on the lining.


The lining transformed the dress from incredibly uncomfortable to a dress that was a pleasure to wear. As I told the girls on the night, the combination of the lining and comfortable amount of ease in this dress means that if I wriggle while wearing it, it's like the dress is stroking me. So comfy!

       

And so ends a long description, of an even longer process, and now I'll be on the hunt for more opportunities to wear this dress...

34 comments:

  1. I loved watching the progress of this dress on instagram and it was a knockout on the night. It was fabulous and flattering all at the same time.
    It was great to meet you and get to chat - I now read your posts with a bit of an english accent in my head - weird but true!

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  2. That is so amazing! Absolutly worth all of the effort, the finished result looks great on you

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  3. wow - what a great dress! such a labour of love!

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  4. Wow, just wow! Amazing skills lady, and it really shows off your curves. Much better than the original inspiration photo too. I am impressed! jen @ the stitcher and gatherer

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  5. Your dress is absolutely beautiful, you shimmered all night! I was wondering where you found the lovely ruched fabric but I had no idea that you did it yourself - amazing! I hope you get another opportunity to wear it again soon too, it's too beautiful to sit in the wardrobe unworn

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  6. Fabulous Rachel - and ohh so perfectly worth all those hours - you've made a perfect dress from your inspiration, lovely ;)

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  7. All that work was worth it because it is fabulous!!! It fits like a dream and it looks just like the inspiration photo. I hope you find a million places to wear it!

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  8. Ruching so much :) AMazing patience and great outcome ..

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  10. Wow you put so much work into this Rachel, what an accomplishment, you look fab!

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  11. I loved following your progress on IG and the finished dress is amazing! You look gorgeous in it and I am in awe if your patience! I hope you find more occasions to wear it, as she's a beauty.

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  12. Brilliant sewing and the end result is amazing ~ congratulations, and it looks stunning on you ... J

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  13. What a labour of love and a beautiful dress. You looked fabulous.

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  14. Radh, this is a stunner! It was an absolute delight to watch this come together on instagram- well worth the hard work!

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  15. Killer dress and worth all the time of pinning and stitching which gave it such great shape and ease!

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  16. OMG this dress is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!
    Love the fit on you, and the colour is gorgeous against your skin tone. LOVE.

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  17. Omg whaaaa? So amazing! I loved seeing ask the details of how it came together. Simply stunning. You're a sewing hero!

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  18. OH. MY. GOD. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

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  19. Your dress is stunning and looks gorgeous on you!

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  20. SO HOT! I love all the detail and I love short hair on you! Beautiful!

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  21. Wow Rachel!!! What a stunning dress and such a feat to get it completed...what intricate work on your part! You look gawjusss!

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  22. Really lovely work. A lining fixes everything!

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  23. Wow this dress is a stunner. So worth all that meticulous effort.
    Great colour, great fit. So great.
    Congratulations!

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  24. Wow! Your dress looks incredible!!

    (Hi. First time commenter. I was to travel up to Frocktails with the Canberra girls, but ended up having visitors announce themselves a couple of months prior. Next year is Melbourne for sure!)

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  25. The dress looks amazing on you. All the hand stitching has really paid off as the finished article looks very polished. I bet you'd pay a fortune for something like that if it was RTW. I adore the colour too.

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  26. You are a sewing ninja!! Imagining all that hand sewing makes me dizzy!!

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  27. So loved reading the steps to this beautiful dress, so very talented

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  28. After following your sewing challenges online, seeing your dress on the night was spectacular. It fit so well and looked perfect for frocktails.

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  29. Wow! Congratulations on creating such a special dress. All that hand stitching is truly impressive. I hope you find many more occasions to wear it.

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  30. Such an amazing dress! The colour is great and it suits you well! You have inspired me - I will put a similar dress on my sewing list although I think I'd rather do princess seam line dress and use sequins only for 1/3 of the width of the dress.

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  31. Everything about this dress on you is perfect - the colour is awesome. I really hope you get more opportunities to wear it!

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  32. Your dress is simply spectacular and your handwork is exquisite. Bravo!

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