Pattern Matching: Kate Moss Topshop dress

Okay, so this dress is almost 10 years late (where has that 10 years gone!) but in 2007 Kate Moss released this gorgeous little black dress as part of one of her first Topshop collaborations.  I desperately wanted one at the time but as a student couldn't justify the expense (they're now around £60 second hand on ebay, so haven't lost their appeal with age).   It's the caged or harness style neckline that really makes this dress - so simple and chic.  Like a lot of her collections it's clearly based on a dress she'd worn when younger (see gratuitous Johnny Depp picture below) which she must have loved to then duplicate the design.  See even models make copies of clothes!  I came across this New Look NL6429 pattern (on sale at Jaycotts as well) and it's almost a perfect dupe, it wouldn't be too hard to make the neck 'straps' slimmer and move the placement of the middle one to allow for four straps rather than the three. 

Anyone going to give this a go, it's too good a match to ignore.....?

Fashion*2DIY4
x

Pattern Review/Hack - McCalls M6893 Skull Lace Applique Dress

Now anyone that follows me on Instagram or Twitter would've seen my many posts about a bridesmaid dress I've been making.  The only remit for the dress was that it had to be black.  As the wedding was in October I decided that I wanted a long dress to suit our British weather.  And then, of course, I played with the idea of getting skulls into it to create an 'alternative' bridesmaid dress.  Not everyone's cup of tea I know, but I was thinking more Alexander McQueen style than teenage goth. 

I decided to start with McCall's pattern M6893, using the long full skirt and bodice D for the elbow length sleeves. 

 





I also had a vague plan of a black skirt and a black lace top over a nude bodice but that was as far as my planning went. 

After searching around and failing to find some black lace that I really liked I decided to look into lace applique and opened a treasure trove of possibilities, there is so much out there!

I ordered an awful lot of lace applique pieces, my main choices were butterflies, flowers and yep skulls.  I also ordered some white lace appliques - like the two doves holding wedding rings  (how appropriate, right?) and dyed them black using Dylon's fabric dye for hand use in velvet black.  The instructions on the packet are super easy to use so don't be intimidated about dying your own fabric to suit your needs.

After knocking together a quick toile of the bodice piece I set about pinning the lace pieces to my mannequin to try and build up what sort of pattern I want.  This took me a long time, I'm talking weeks here, of putting some pieces on then leaving it to see how I felt about it after a couple of days.  I actually really enjoy this sort of thing, it's kind of like a puzzle trying to get all the pieces to fit together and also to follow the natural body shape.  The large skull piece on the back meant that I had to move the placement of the zip from the back to the side seam.
 

Then it was on to making the actual dress.  I made the bodice out of some nude satin fabric.  I ordered multiple samples to make sure I got just the right colour to suit my skin tone. 

I made the tulle overlay using double seams rather than a French seam and trimmed close to the stitching. Then I lined both top pieces up on my mannequin and pinned them together matching the bust darts and side seams.

I hand tacked every piece of applique in place onto just the tulle not the under bodice so that the top would have some movement.  Then started the long process of hand stitch each in place.  I wanted to do it by hand to make sure it was absolutely neat, stitching around the outer edge of each piece.

  

I even found some gorgeous lace ribbon with skulls in it to put around the bottom of each sleeve.  So pretty!  Once everything was sewn into place a trimmed away the excess tulle and any lose threads.

I had originally planned just to have a satin skirt, but with the tulle bodice I decided to add a tulle over lay skirt to bring the whole dress together.


So the fully finished dress.  I don't have any good quality full length photos at the moment as trying to take good photos in winter light is impossible.  I'll update them when the weather is more co-operative! But you get the general idea.

This was probably the biggest project I've done so far and took me a good couple of months to get finished.  Has anyone else made a bridesmaid dress or used McCalls M6893 for a project?

Update: Got a couple of photos from the big day, gives you a proper idea of the final lace effect :)

Love F*2DIY4 x
@fashiontodiyfor #fashionDIY

Pattern Hack/Review: By Hand London Georgia Dress Babydoll

As you know by now we are huge fans of By Hand London's Georgia dress pattern.  We reviewed the pattern for you and took on our own hack of it, resulting in these two beautiful dresses:

One of the reasons we just had to buy this pattern was because of the gorgeous babydoll pattern hack over on By Hand London's Blog.  We thought it was about time we put it to the test.  You only need to extend the back bodice piece to make the bow and make a circle skirt instead of the skirt with the pattern.  They even provide an app to work out the circle skirt for you so you don't have to calculate it yourself. How neat is that?!

The instructions on the blog are as easy to follow as the ones in the pattern.  We were very impressed with the result and if you have the Georgia dress pattern then you must make this version of it too.  Just look at the results:

Love,
F*2DIY4 x
@fashiontodiyfor #fashionDIY

Pattern Matching: Valentino Lace Dress

We adore these beautiful Valentino lace dresses (and there's many more in the range).  If you fancy making your own then we recommend Vogue V8766 dress pattern.  With the various sleeve lengths and different skirt options you can put together your own perfect lace dress.

Love,

 Fashion*2DIY4

@fashiontodiyfor #fashionDIY

Pattern Hack: By Hand London's 'Georgia' dress

We loved By Hand London's Georgia dress (our review can be found here). However, here at Fashion To DIY For we also love to adapt and 'hack' patterns to create beautiful and unique clothes from the depths of our imaginations. When we saw this pattern we knew it would be perfect for a dress we'd been planning for a while.

 

The most obvious change is the hemline. We added this flirty flounce along the hem using a general circle skirt rule. You'll need a donut of fabric, with the centre circle being the same as the circumference of the bottom of the skirt and the width being the depth you want your frill to be plus the seam and hem allowances.

 

We also adjusted the hemline to be slightly higher at the front than the back for a little more interest and shape.  You'll need to decide how long you want the dress to be at the centre front (cf) and how long you want it at the centre back (cb).  Then divide the difference between these two figures by half the circumference of your hemline.  This'll give you how much longer your skirt should get per cm around your dress.  Then you'll need to adjust your pattern pieces accordingly.  For example

Length of centre front = cf
Length of centre back = cb
Circumference of skirt = c

cb - cf / (c/2) = difference per cm of circumference (d)

Now you will need to mark your pattern pieces, starting with marking the length of the centre front on your pattern piece.  Measure the width of the pattern piece (w) and times this by the difference per cm that you calculated earlier.  This will give you how much lower the far side of the pattern piece should be compared to your centre front starting point.  Mark this on the pattern piece and mark the same point on the next pattern piece (the front side pattern piece as this is where they will be sewn together so need to match). Then measure the width of this piece and use the same formula (width of the pattern piece x d) to give you how much lower the other side of the pattern piece needs to be compared to this starting point.  Continue this process around the pattern pieces until you reach the centre back. This'll give you a straight diagonal line sloping down from the centre front to the centre back.  You can smooth the points out if you want but the flounce covers up the harshness of these lines.  All very technical!  Perhaps some diagrams would help?  Let us know if you want some.

 

The bow on the back is our favourite feature.  It's made from a rectangle of fabric which we pleated and slid through a loop we attached at the hemline when sewing on our flounce.  You'll need to hand stitch the top corners of the bow to the dress so that it holds its shape.

 

We felt that this dress was particularly suitable for piping (which we're obsessed with at the moment) as it helps to highlight it's sexy shape.  We'll be putting together a tutorial on piping soon if that's something that you're not too familiar with.

 

Finally, we topstitched the straps and around the neckline of the dress, just to give it a more professional and pulled together look. 

 

Note: We love tartan, as you will notice over our projects, but it is a lot of effort to work with.  No matter how frustrating it is it's always worth taking the extra time to make sure that you're pattern lines will match when sewn together.  Again, we'll put together a tutorial on how to match fabric patterns if that's something that'll be of use to you.  It's these small tips and finishing touches that will give you a more professional high end looking dress. 

We hope you love our pattern hack as much as we do.  If you're inspired to undertake your own pattern hack we would love to see the results!

Love F*2DIY4 x
@fashiontodiyfor #fashionDIY

Pattern Review: By Hand London 'Georgia' Dress

Note: We've used this By Hand London 'Georgia' dress pattern as a base to make this dress.  To find out what changes we made click on the image :)

Pattern Matching: Dior Dress

When we saw this Dior gown we just had to find a pattern match for it!  Perhaps not a dress you'd wear on a daily basis but definitely one to make an impression on a special occasion. This McCall's M6701pattern is the perfect match for the distinctive high low skirt that makes this dress so beautiful.  A bold pattern or contrast fabric is key to copying this look: a plain fabric on the outside of your dress with a flash of contrasting colour or pattern underneath.
F*2DIY4

 

 

Pattern Matching: Stella McCartney Saskia Dress

Remember when all the celebs were out in that Stella McCartney dress? Be it Kate Moss, Victoria Pemberton, Katherine Jenkins, the list goes on.  With the right material we reckon you could be rocking the look yourself with this Burda Young 7053 pattern.