Harley Quinn Dress With A 50′s Twist

I haven’t really blogged about making the Harley dress I’ve been to busy making the thing. I used the vintage 50′s pattern as a guide and draped the bodice on the stand. Here’s Lucy having a quick fitting of the skirt and muslin bodice.

I added more seams with boning for more structure. The bodice actually now fits a bit like a corset and feels a lot more secure so it doesn’t depend on the straps to keep it in place. 

It’s made from taffeta, the front drape is hand sewn and the bodice is fully lined. The original design had a side zip but I’ve moved this to the back. 

Doesn’t it look great with the petticoat giving the skirt that 50′s silhouette. 

I know I have been neglecting this blog but I have been working on some new big exciting things. Lately I have been totally overwhelmed and whilst it’s frightening taking this huge step and risk it’s also immensely satisfying  and I can’t wait for it all to actually start happening. 

The Poison Ivy Dress with a 50′s twist

The dress is finally complete here’s a few photo’s…

One of the fittings with Lucy before some alterations.

The finished dress.

Hopefully will get lots of photo’s of the dress in action when Lucy goes to MCM London this weekend and i’m also planning a little photo shoot.

Chester Food and Drink Fest

Some photos from the Chester Food and Drink Fest the Mr and I went to over the Easter weekend. I turned my nose up at it being and Chester Racecourse at first but I really enjoyed it even if it wasn’t in a farmer’s field like Claremont. Claremont Farm Wirral Food and Drink Fest fans and festival vendors seem to be gutted that the festival is not happening this year. It’s rumoured they didn’t make enough cash but I’m hoping they are just giving the ground time to repair itself. It was really nice to see some of my favourite stalls from Claremont there and Muff’s of Bromborough from my Village was there too. My new favourite was a stall named ‘Dough It Yourself’ their pre-made pizza bases where lovely and I bought some of the nicest chorizo I have ever eaten.

Looking forward to eating my body weight in cheese, chorizo and hog roasts at the next festival soon, not forgetting getting ‘accidentally’ merry drinking very strong cider.

Poison Ivy Dress Progress

Last week I was having a few issues attaching the sleeves, I got myself a bit confused about which bit attached to the bodice front and which bit attached to the back. I found the instructions here a bit confusing too so I decided not to slip stitch the lining but machine sew both fabric and lining and finish the seam with an over locker. The style of this dress has off the shoulder straps but these were ill fitting and too revealing so I followed Gertie’s instructions on her blog to make the straps sit more on the shoulder. I was still concerned about the sleeves so called for a fitting, they needed altering again. I didn’t take into consideration the seams when making the alteration and I’m now left with messiness. I will try and neaten it up and over lock the seams. Next time I will do this differently, I will press the joining seam open and the over lock before sewing the sleeve in place. It also goes to show that cutting corners does not always pay off; I should have checked the sleeve alteration in a muslin made to fit my model.

Well the dress is coming together now. I made the drapes for the skirt and then basted them to the skirt front. I then attached the bodice to skirt, my machine struggled a bit going over the layers of fabric where the drapes sit on top of the skirt pleats but thankfully my needle did not break. If you plan on making this dress make sure the boning in the bodice is push down the boning channel and hasn’t started to slip out at the end your sewing as you will break your needle. If you’re worried you could probably use a zipper foot. Every seam and dart matches nicely except for one dart at the back, I’m not sure what went wrong here but it is going to have to do. I am planning on making this dress again so it will be interesting to see if this happens again I’m not sure if it has something to do with which way I pressed the dart.

The thing I hate sewing more than sleeves is zips so I’m going to hang on until I have one last fitting before I hem it and put the zip in.

Poison Ivy Dress Progress

In the midst of fighting tooth ache and continuously falling down the stairs I’ve been cracking on with the Ivy dress. It’s going together quite well apart from a few silly mistakes on my part.

In Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing, the creator of the pattern design for Butterick, Gertie suggests using twill  tape to stabilise the neck line that is cut on the bias. Well I couldn’t find twill tape in the U.K. it seems I will have to source it from America but pressed for time I have carried on without it, of course I may regret this. I have taken in the sleeves as shown in Gertie’s blog to keep the the sleeves sitting on the shoulders nicely.

This dress design relies on hidden boning to give it structure. I always use spiral steel boning for my projects as it’s more comfortable to wear. I get it all in pre-cut lengths from www.venacavadesign.co.uk and I use a zipper foot when stitching close to the boning. As you can see I’m a bit wobbly but it’s all hidden away. 

 

I will update again soon.

A busy little bee

Been super busy for a while but I’m back and getting up to date. 

First off my man took me away for valentine’s weekend to a favorite place of ours. I had such a lovely weekend exploring beaches and waterfalls and even trying my hardest to learn a bit of Welsh. Here’s a few photo’s from Wales.

There’s a few more photo’s up on my Instagram, search little cuckoo and you’ll find me.

I’ve also been struggling with the Harley Quinn dress vintage pattern. I’m blaming pointy bra’s for the (in my opinion) stupidly placed darts. So I had to move the dart which shifted were the strap should sit. I had to wait for a fitting before I felt I could move on with it. From the fitting I’ve deciding to add some boning into the bodice to give it a bit more structure.

The Harley Quinn Dress bodice on the stand.

Finally I am posting the Poison Ivy Dress final design! It’s really getting me excited.

It’s been full steam ahead on Gertie’s (from Gertie’s blog for better sewing) Butterick B5814 pattern I’m using for The Poison Ivy Dress. I made a toile and it fit just about perfectly. I had anticipated doing some alterations on the sleeve as shown in Gertie’s blog which I will have to do. And the cherry on the cake, the toile fits me too! I now have to make one for myself, how can I not?

The bodice on the stand.

I have also been a busy bee in the garden; I have grown my own veggies in pot’s for the last two years and have finally taken the plunge digging two veg patches. I have also bought a green house and have big plans. I’ve launched my sister blog www.alittlecuckoosgarden.wordpress.com about it and hope to share experiences and tips and a novice veggie grower. I’m really hoping to connect with other young British growers, I value every person from around the world that looks at this blog, it’s just British weather is temperamental at best so any advice on dealing with months of rain will be handy. 

So from busy to busier, going to start constructing the two dresses soon and will try take lots of photo’s of it’s construction.

 

My Harley Quinn Designs

I looked at a lot of vintage 50′s dress patterns and played around with a few idea’s. The cross over designs do look nice with the contrasting red and black. I really like the neckline of the dress in the middle, it’s quite edgy and makes me think of that sly smile Harley Quinn always seems to be wearing. 

We loved the original design so much that I went in search for a vintage pattern that was similar and I found one! It’s a gorgeous vintage Vogue special design 4264, I bought it from http://www.sovintagepatterns.com, the pattern itself is in a really good condition although the envelope is quite torn but that is to be expected. When you buy from So Vintage Patterns you also get 10% off all your future orders which is smashing, with 10% off I expect this site will even beat Etsy on prices. 

Here’s the beautiful vintage pattern and my design..

It’s the first time i’m sewing from a vintage pattern so i’m a bit apprehensive. I invested in some proper pattern paper to make a copy of the original and made sure not to cut any corners in the process. I carefully ironed each piece and copied every notch and dot. Vintage patterns don’t have text on them which is slightly daunting but the pattern doesn’t actually look that complicated. Just waiting to get my friends measurements so I can pad out Dolly the Mannequin to fit and make a start on the bodice toile.