lunes, 28 de octubre de 2013

Vogue 8630 - a dress with 10 darts for Frocktober


Hello ladies, here I am again. Long time no see. I have valid reasons for that!

I have been super busy making plans for the renovation of our apartment. We have finally agreed on a plan with our architect (and more importantly, a price with our renovator) so we can move forward and apply for the permits.
The past few months I have been very busy scouring Pinterest for ideas, and now it's a matter of finding the right kitchen, bathroom, floors, tiles, light switches, door handles (... you get the picture) to make our home OURS.

Apart from renovating I have taken up physical activities! And not just one, no, I started 3 different sports! 

Every Thursday I take tennis classes. I am a beginner, but enjoying myself! And I am already dreaming up a few cute tennis outfits. Is it wrong to start a hobby just for the wardrobe possibilities?

The next day, every Friday, my husband and I are taking a dance class. Taking dance classes together has been on our wishlist for almost 10 years now, and it's finally happening! We found a school here in Santander that teaches Swing and Lindy Hop and it is all kinds of awesome. We're still learning and so we fall out of rhythm all the time and occasionally step on each others' toes, but it will all be worth it in the end. And again, I'm already thinking of all the dresses I could make for dancing... Not to mention the shoes!

And last but not least, we took a sailing course. Every Saturday and Sunday of October we have been out on the water with our trusty Julien the Vaurien. We have been having a ball... Luckily the weather has been kind, with no rain at all and temperatures above 20ºC. We are already making plans to continue the course throughout the entire year to learn to sail regattas! It is just awesome. Oh, you want a picture? Your wish is my command!


Back to the dress!

Today I am showing off my make for The Monthly Stitch Frocktober. When I hear the word 'Frock' I immediately think 'fancy dress'.
I have been stuck on straight skirts for a while now and I have a huge crush on Belgian Queen Mathilde, so I chose this pattern. It reminded me of the gorgeous dress the Queen wore to the crowning of King Philippe.

The Queen's version:
Source
My version:


As you can see, there are a couple of differences.

First of all, I omitted the collar. One reason is that I didn't think it would work very well with this fabric, and the second is that I barely managed to cut the dress of the yardage I had on hand, a collar was simply not possible.


Another difference: no sleeves. I don't think those would have worked either. I have never worn a dress with silk twill sleeves, but I can't imagine that those are really comfortable. Besides, if I want to go dancing in this dress, sleeves would only be in the way.

Last difference: mine is shorter. I don't have a crowning to attend and I like my skirts a bit shorter.






Apart from sewing 10 darts, this is not a difficult dress! The only difficulty I had was that I only had 0.5 cm of seam allowance on the sides from the waist down (thank you pear shape) and inserting an invisible zipper with that small amount of fabric... Pfffff... In the end I had to handstitch it in place.

The fabric is a great silk twill I picked up on my La Coruña fabric binge. It was the last of the bolt and I got it for 30€. It was just enough and involved a bit of puzzling to get the fabricpattern to line up, but it worked out! Yeay!

These pictures were taken in the entrance of our apartment building, and I really like the setting. We should do something about the lighting though...



I really love the dress, but it won't come out of the closet any time soon due to lack of an appropriate event... New Year's Eve is not that far away though.

11 comentarios:

  1. The dress is gorgeous! I love the colors :) Well done!

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  2. Maider....Masustak29 de octubre de 2013, 9:12

    Wow it turned out cute and elegant! It look great on you, the fit is awesome. Enjoy all your outdoor activities, I think that the cold weather is near here...

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  3. Leuk om te zien dat je bezig bent met allerlei toffe activiteiten! Goed gedaan voor de jurk - mooi stof en originele patroon , het past je goed!

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  4. I think starting new hobbies for the wardrobe possibilities is a genius idea. Three new hobbies, even better! You can get such cute tennis dress patterns too. Your new silk dress looks lovely :)

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  5. Sailing will be a little hard to sew for, although I have bought Neoprene in London before... Tennis-wear is first on my list... Thanks for the compliment on the dress!

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  6. Bedankt Rosangela! Een mens kan niet alleen maar naaien he...

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  7. Thanks! Definitely getting colder around here... :-(

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  8. Gorgeous, gorgeous dress. I love the fabric you picked and the length is perfect! I also have a crush on Queen Mathilde...she never puts a foot wrong fashion wise! Good luck with the renovations and the dance classes, I'm still trying to convince my hubby to join!

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  9. Ooh, it's a lovely little dress - absolutely delectable!

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  10. Thanks! I like dressy dresses on the shorter side, especially if they are narrow like this one, walking gets difficult really quick! Our Queen is the very best there is, I'm definitely in love! ;-)
    You should really try to get your husband to join a dance class, it's so much fun! And we now go out on a regular basis, to venues where they have special dance nights! Finally a reasonable excuse to wear my fancy dresses!

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