Strawberry Thief Belladone

Did you know that you can get Vans sneakers made from liberty fabric??! Back in mid-2013 there were 6 liberty prints available as Vans, however I only ever managed to find two of them in Australia, despite having decided that I must have the "Strawberry Thief" style. I also couldn't get them shipped to Australia easily, as supposedly they're imported here by a distributor.

Enormous thanks must go to the ever generous Poppykettle, who very kindly saved me a little bit of her precious luggage space from her trip to the US, to bring back these shoes for me (after I ordered them to be sent to her hotel).

Ever since achieving owning the shoes, I have also been plotting to make a coordinated outfit. Not a whole dress from the fabric, as that might be a bit too matchy-matchy, and also pretty pricey, but something using the liberty as a trim.

Just before Christmas, I bought this coordinating stretch sateen from Spotlight (although unimpressed with spotlight, 3 of the 5 pieces of fabric I bought that day had flaws in them, including this one. very unimpressed).

The liberty has so many colours in it that I had lots of different options for coordinating, but a lot of the possibles that I found didn't seem all that wearable. Bright pink? Too 'girly'. Pale Green? Too bright. Navy? No fun for summer. Then I spotted this steel-y blue. Yup, yup yup!

I chose to use the belladone pattern because it's perfectly suited to using bias binding as a feature. In addition to using bias on the back, and around the neckline and armholes, I also added a strip along each edge of the waistband, and along the opening of the pockets. I kept the bias binding as a thin line, making the visible width about 1/4".



I forgot to stitch down the top few inches of the pleats in the skirt, and may still go back and stitch them down by hand, as it really does make a big difference to the look of the skirt.

I was on a real hand sewing kick while making this dress. The first seam of the bias binding was done by machine, but the second side stitched down by hand. I also hand picked the zip up the back and did a hand stiched blind hem.

This dress has been a little while coming, but I'm thrilled with the end result. I'm expecting it to be great all year round, as I hope it'll be suitable to wear in colder weather with a long sleeved t-shirt and tights underneath.

Also, it turns out that it's pretty tricky to take photos that highlight that the dress and the shoes are coordinated, as the liberty on the dress is so far away from my feet!

 

Pattern: Belladone by Dear and Doe
Fabric: Stretch Sateen from Spotlight, "Strawberry Thief" Liberty Lawn from L'ucello
Notions: Thread, interfacing (for waistband), matching dress zip

 

See also: BusyLizzie, Millydodo, Tabatha Tweedie

So, dress coordinating with my shoes; Awesome or a little bit tacky?

Liberty Portrait Blouse

When I was in London last year I attended an overwhelming meet-up on Goldhawk Road, which included a fabric swap. Unfortunately, I didn't have any fabric to donate to the swap, but the other attendees forgave me given that I was on holiday, and encouraged me to participate in the swap anyway.

I came away with a few pieces of fabric from the swap, one of which was this liberty fabric. I know right, who donates liberty fabric to a swap??? I don't actually know, but whoever that kind soul is, THANK YOU!

This post is horriffically delayed, I actually sewed this blouse, and even photographed it, at Sewaway in June, just hadn't blogged it yet. Nevermind, better late than never, right?

I decided to make another portrait blouse from the fabric. My previous versions get worn a lot, so another one seemed a good idea, and I didn't want to have to worry about breaking up this print with lots of seam lines.

Interestingly, I am assuming due to the difference in drape between this fabric and the fabrics used for the previous versions (this one was less drapey), this version comes across as larger than those previous versions. I think borderline too big. Not that that's stopped me from wearing it, but it's an interesting observation for future note.

As expected for Liberty, the fabric was a dream to sew up. I didn't do anything fancy with the construction, finishing the arm and neck holes with some purchased cream bias binding.

 

And in true BimbleAndPimble style (pictured above and who I was making faces at in the photo above that), I'll end this post with some silly photos because I don't have anything more to say.

SewCieTea Dress - The Real Thing, In Liberty

You've seen the first practice dress, and the second practice dress, and finally I am showing you the real thing, made of the precious Liberty fabric given to me by my Gran.

To quickly recap the details of this dress, I wanted to make a 50s style full skirted dress, with a fitted bodice and a wide scooped neckline. Rather than spend ages hunting for the perfect pattern and then even longer adjusting it to fit, I chose to use my self-drafted bodice (used here and here) and change the neckline and armholes to suit my vision.

To make the neckline I adopted a really scientific approach; I put on my peacock dress and measured down about how much lower I wanted the front neckline, how much higher the back neckline needed to be, and where I wanted it to fall on my shoulders (mostly dictated by where my bra straps sit) and drew it on to a copy of the pattern, using my french curve to help smooth the curves. I then also extended out the shoulder seams slightly to give the impression of slight cap sleeves.

 

I fluked out with the neckline, and really liked how it turned out on the first practice dress. After some input from friends confirming some ideas that I'd had, I decided to try adding a contrast band around the neckline and at the waistline. The band at the neck is 1.5" wide, and the waistband is 1.25" (based on the waistband of the Cambie.

I also added a pocket into the RH side seam in the second version, using the pocket piece for the full-skirted Cambie. In all versions the skirt is just a circle skirt (I used the pattern piece from vogue 2902 rather than draft one).

 

I didn't make any changes after the second practice version, and took my time on the construction of this dress. The inside is almost as beautiful as the outside.

The bodice is underlined with some cream cotton batiste.

I finished the armholes with bias binding (hand stitched to the underlining so it's invisible from the outside) and did french seams on the shoulder seams..

For most of the seam allowances I turned them under and stitched them to give a lovely clean finish.

The waistband was finished with a second waistband piece on the inside, that was machine stitched onto the waist seam allowances at the top, and slip stitched along the bottom.

You can just see it above, the only seam that didn't have all of the raw edges enclosed was the pocket, where I just zig-zagged.

The side zip is a hand picked lapped zip...

I even changed thread colour for the 1.25" of the waistband!

I really do love how a hand-picked zip looks.

The contrast band on the neckline was sewn on like a facing, but on the outside. I will be sharing a post later this week (hopefully) with details of how I constructed the bodice with this contrast detail.

I am incredibly proud of the top-stitching; I love my top-stitching foot!

The skirt wasn't lined, as I wore it with my new Crinoline! (post to follow)

I'm still not completely sure about the crinoline. I've never worn one before (except for a few photos), and I was incredibly aware that I was wearing it all afternoon.

At the time it felt a tad conspicuous and costume-y, but looking at the photos I really love the silhouette of the dress with the crinoline underneath it.

So the jury is still out as to whether it will be worn with or without the crinoline for the wedding I'm planning on wearing it to in the UK in July.

However, I am madly in love with the dress, I really do think (and hope) I've done The Liberty and my Gran proud.

Easter is designed for a sewing holiday, right?

How was your Easter long weekend? Between cleaning eating I got a whole stack of sewing done! That's what it was meant for, right?

I finally plucked up the courage to cut into my liberty and start my SewCieTea dress...

Following which there was hand basting...

Stitching & Top Stitching...

And after everything except hemming and hand stitching was done, I played with Tulle...

Oh, and my Iron died on Friday :( So on Saturday I went to buy a fancy new one...

So overall, a very successful weekend.

What about you? Did you have a good long weekend?