I bought this fabric, um, pair of curtains, from a charity shop on Saturday.
They were double layer, white on one side and green on the other, and although they cost £6 (over my flinch point) they were big, and I though the right dress pattern might not look too much like curtains-made-dress.
I dragged out all my patterns but none were right, and I wanted to use one fabric as main and the other as accent. Enter the Coffee Date dress, a free printable pattern from the blessed Burdastyle :)
Here’s how it came out…
I added sleeves because I’m not really built for that shift-dress thing. The sleeves are just a basic light puff, and I added a turn up hem in contrasting green. Obviously I haven’t done the final pressing, it needs hemming and I need to add a button at the top back but I had some light and took the chance for a photo!
The pattern wasn’t too hard but it doesn’t come with any instructions so you’d need to have made a dress before (or just grab the instructions from another frock) so you do things in the right order! I just winged it really, so the sewing (and ripping and re-sewing…) took from 12 lunchtime until 1 in the morning, with a break for tea. Yawn. I’ve also lost some weight and am now smaller than my dressform (don’t get too excited, she’s the larger sized Singer, I’m not a size ‘0’ or anything!) so that made it a bit harder.
I was hoping with the addition of the sleeves it would look more vintagey, and it looks much better on – imagine it with a vintage cardi, belt and some pointy shoes.
I have also cut the pieces for the Kasia skirt, with the dark green for the main body and the white for the pockets. I’ve made that before, so it should be quicker than the dress!
On the same charity shopping expedition, I also got this fabric, um, duvet cover:
And this is the other side:
It’s honestly nicer than the photo, it’s grey and almost black with this amazing shot of red. Can’t you imagine a 50’s-style dress using one of the borders as a hem? Graduated-like, and worn with a bright red wide patent belt and heels? Maybe a red bolero jacket? It could be awesomesauce, but I haven’t got a clue where I’d wear it!
Beccy
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Oh, I love the duvet cover fabric. You would look so cute in it and a bolero. :) Be awesomesauce! Go on!
ReplyDeleteAnd fantastic job making a cute and totally non-curtainlike dress.
I never ever would have guessed that was curtains! Super awesome job! You have inspired me to move this up on my project list!
ReplyDeletecute,and it was once curtains, who would have known!
ReplyDeleteWow! I am really impressed. I would have never thought in a million years that it was made out of curtains. It's gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI love your dress-from-curtains. I would love to see a pic of it on you with, as you say, a cardi and some pointy shoes. Lovely and very well done. I keep meaning to try one of the Burda patterns. Some of them look very nice. Oh - I've found your blog through Wardrobe Refashion.
ReplyDeleteLove your dress from curtains, I regularly make dresses from old duvet covers but have never yet found the curtains where I won't look like I'm wearing Granny's sofa!! But you had a great find with that fabric and I can just imagine the look with the pointy shoes and cardi!!
ReplyDeleteThanks chaps!
ReplyDeleteI need to hurry up and finish what's on my needles and start on the cardi to go with this dress! (Or maybe I should hunt down the perfect pointy shoes first?)