Clare chose the VikiSews Leoncia dress to wear to the wedding.  We began the planning process a few months prior, although the dress didn’t actually get finished until the week before we left!

This is the line drawing for the dress. It’s all cut on the bias. Clare and I had done some formal dress try-on sessions at the local shops some months earlier where we’d determined that bias cut worked nicely on her, but it really needed me to sew it to grade up through the hips. In the end I cut size 2 (Australian size 6) for the bodice, and graded it up to size 4 (Australian size 8) through the hips, which was very straightforward.  I bought the 162-168cm height range of the pattern.

The fabric is crepe backed polyester satin, bought on considerable discount at Lincraft (of all places!) with mint green bemsilk lining. The blue fabric in the photo is the poly satin I used for her Marla dress.

The dress was actually fairly straighforward to make, especially because there are no closures, as it slips on due to the flexibility of the bias. The spaghetti straps that hold the entire dress up have sliders to make them adjustable. If I sewed this again I would move them in a little – the straps ended up being a bit wide-set on Clare’s narrower shoulders.

Before I attached the sleeves I had Clare try on the dress. It actually looked really cute on her without them! It wouldn’t be at all difficult to adjust the pattern to make it sleeveless. Nevertheless, we continued on with adding the sleeves.

I had complicated things slightly by deciding to fully line the dress. The upper front is fully lined, but the back neckline is finished with a facing. I cut the skirt pattern pieces out in lining fabric and attached the back pieces to the back facing, and the front skirt piece to the upper front self-fabric lining, and then continued on with construction pretty much as per the instructions. It all worked out okay!

When Clare tried it on, she found that her arm movement was a bit restricted. I let out the bicep area of the sleeves, which improved matters considerably. Then we discovered that she really needed to wear the dress hiked right up to her armpits, with the straps set fairly short in order to provide a really good danceable range of movement. Double-sided tape helped to keep the bodice in the right spot! She accidentally found out if she tucked the sleeves inside the dress she could wear it sleeveless and you couldn’t even tell there were sleeves inside – an unexpected versatility bonus.

When I started sewing the dress I sewed over a pin and completely threw off the timing of my machine and jammed it. Yikes! I sent the Pinnock off for repairs, and switched to sewing on the girls’ machine, a little Bernette. Once I got the hang of things it sewed quite nicely. I used the overlocker to finish seam allowances. I used an old Big4 pattern to sew up a matching pouch for Clare to carry her phone etc in. It wasn’t my best work, but it was fine on the day!

Anyway, Clare looked fabulous! The dress turned out beautifully, was comfortable to wear (other than having to apply double-sided tape to the top edges of the bodice) and she received many compliments. It turned out that it was highly danceable too!

Wow, what a wonderful holiday we had!  I know that some of you followed our South-West USA and Fiji trip via Facebook or Instagram and were spammed with my daily updates.  It really was the trip of a lifetime.  And the wedding – the whole impetus for the trip – was superb!  I’ll share more photos later, but first off am adding to my last blog post about Stella’s VikiSews Tally bustier top with some modelled photos.

The wedding was in Winter Park, Colorado. A snow storm raged outside while we enjoyed a beautiful ceremony and fabulous reception inside. Just superb!

We’re heading to the USA very soon (via Fiji) to attend our nephew’s wedding in Colorado.  Which means that I needed to do some wedding guest sewing! The dress code is formal (suits, gowns, cocktail dresses).  We bought Dan a new suit from our favourite menswear retailer (it had been a long time between suits) and the girls and I went shopping to see if there were any styles that we fancied.  Stella decided that she wanted to wear a suit, but with a pretty top underneath.  I’ve been travelling for work quite a lot this year, and knew that it wasn’t really viable for me to sew her a suit with all the fitting that might entail. We found her one at Forever New, and I found the Vikisews Tally bustier top pattern.

I wasn’t going to cut into ‘good’ fabric until I’d worked out any fitting tweaks. I bought the smallest size pattern (US2/UK6 – Stella is an Australian women’s size 4 in the shops) and printed the shortest height range.  Although Stella is around 160cm tall she’s a little short-waisted so I figured that would work best in this style.  I found some mid/heavy weight poly satin in stash and decided to use that for the hopefully wearable muslin.

There was no way that I was going to make the bias strips to topstich over the seamlines as per the pattern – not in this poly satin! But they’d be great in something lighter weight or something like a linen.

I still needed to take up the shoulders a little, and decided to bring in the centre front panel a smidge at the neckline.

The fancy plastic separating zipper that I used at the back was found at Jimmy Buttons. It’s a fraction too long for purpose, but I managed to fudge it adequately enough. So, the finished bustier? It’s a success!

She’s been wearing it both as a top on it’s own and styled over a white shirt. Hooray!

So you ask, why couldn’t she wear this top with the suit? Well, the suit is dark green and the blue/teal satin doesn’t go with it at all. We auditioned many fabrics as potential options for the ‘real’ top, and ended up with a brocade from The Cloth Shop. Which happened to be left over from MY wedding guest dress. Yes, Stella and I are going to match!

I made the same alterations to this top as I did to the satin one, only to discover that the armholes were now a fraction too high! Good thing I had her try it on before I lined it; I was able to re-sew the shoulder seams to have the tiniest seam allowance possible, and that fixed it.  Phew! This zipper also came from Jimmy Buttons, but because it was a metal zipper I was able to shorten it to the correct length. There is a good video tutorial on shortening a metal zipper for the back of a bustier here – starting at 7:53min.

I don’t have any modelled photos of this bustier on Stella to share with you, but here’s the outfit!

Don’t worry, I’ll spam you all with modelled photos from the wedding!  I’ll blog my wedding guest dress soon, and Clare’s just needs a few tweaks and the hem done.  We leave in less than a week!

Clare is finally able to enjoy a social life (after the events of the past couple of years).  As a result, she needs some fancy clothes!  We had an excursion to the local shopping centre a few months ago where she tried on a variety of styles and we figured out more about what she likes, what she feels good in, and that if we want good fit, I need to sew for her.

Vikisews has a number of patterns that are very current and appeal to my teenagers. She sells her patterns in height ranges, which works well for us. Some are available as multi-sized patterns and others are single sized. You can find them on Etsy and on the Vikisews website. The designer is Russian, so many of the patterns have instructions/markings in both Russian and/or English.

I started with a bodice muslin, both to get an idea of sizing and to understand the construction. I figured that I’d be able to convert the bodice muslin into a top. The floral cotton has been in stash for ages; it originally came from GJs, back when they were in Brunswick.

The pattern came with step by step instructions with photos of each step. There was also plenty of general fitting and construction detail. Although these long tutorials don’t lend themselves easily to being printed, and are better read from an iPad or laptop screen during the sewing process, the instructions were very comprehensive.

I inserted an separating zip in the centre back so that the muslin could be worn as a top. The zip was really a fraction too long for the bodice depth, so the insertion is a bit dodgy, but that’s on me. I found the zip at Jimmy Buttons.

The top has only been worn a few times, because it was made back in winter! Anyway, on to the dress that the top was really all about. I had sewn the top in size US 2 / UK (and Aus) 6 / EU 34, and chosen the 154-160cm height range. Clare is a little over 160cm tall but she’s proportionately shorter through the torso, so I felt that would be a better fit. I hadn’t needed to alter the top, so was able to cut straight into the poly satin that we’d bought from Lincraft (for an absolutely bargain price of around $2 per metre!). I did my own free-style grading up the pattern from the waist to the hips at the side seams and centre back seam, as Clare is more an Australian size 8 through the hips. It seemed to work!

The dress is completely lined and I chose to self-line (I had loads of that bargain satin). The instructions make sure that you stabilise the seamlines of all relevant pieces with fusible tape, and I think that really helped with keeping everything in shape and making it easier to sew. The back of the dress closes with an invisible zip. I have a few photos of the dress turned inside out to share with you.

Clare wore this dress to a 21st birthday party back in August, accessorised with my jewelery and my grandmother’s fur jacket. She looked fabulous, and apparently the skirt split allowed for plenty of Greek dancing. But any tighter through the skirt and she wouldn’t have been able to sit comfortably!  I swear that poly satin photographs terribly and shows all sorts of wrinkles and folds that aren’t an issue in reality – but you still get the overall picture; she looked gorgeous!

I have another Vikisews formal dress pattern just waiting to be cut out and sewn for Clare before we head to the USA in five weeks time. Had better get cracking!

Back in 2018 Clare sewed a dress from a vintage pattern using vintage techniques as part of her MYP Personal Project.

The dress has been languishing in her wardrobe, as the bodice no longer fitted. However, Clare really likes the fabric, and the full skirt. As it happened, there was still some fabric left in the stash. So between the dress, the scissors and sewing machine, and a new pattern, the dress became a matching skirt and top!

The skirt was easy. I cut the original dress through the bodice, a couple of inches above the seamline to keep all the gathering intact. Then I did a double turn of the fabric to form a waistband, and hand-stitched it in place. I did think to remove the vintage side dress zip before wielding the scissors! I inserted a new invisible zip into the side seam, and added a couple of buttons and loops for waistband adjustability.

The top was more complicated. It took a bit of trawling through pattern sites to find something that matched her vision. We ended up with the VikiSews Nola dress. The pattern is described as follows: Nola is a close-fitting dress with a trapeze silhouette. The front features a yoke gathered on the bottom, and finished with a channel for ties on the top. The back has side panels as well as a shirred center panel. The skirt has a slight A-line shape. Nola has a short, voluminous sleeve with gathers along the shoulder and a channel for elastic at the hem. The front and back necklines are quite deep, and the dress is above knee length.

I figured that I could just cut the dress off at top length, and it would work out okay. I also modified the design by using elastic in channels in the back instead of shirring. Shirring looks gorgeous, and Clare loves it, but my sewing machine really prefers not to shirr!

I cut the centre back piece double (I used a lightweight cotton for all lining pieces as I barely had enough fabric for the outer) so that I could sew the channels for the elastic. I also made a casing at the hemline and inserted elastic there to keep the top closer to Clare’s body. However, this pattern is designed as a dress without any fastenings like a side zip or similar. In this top version Clare can barely wriggle into it! If I was sewing this again I would definitely look at openings/fastenings to make it easier to get in and out of.

The sleeve hem frill is created by turning a fairly wide hem and sewing a channel for the elastic. Easy peasy! And pretty. Here’s a closer photo so that you can see details of the bustline, sleeves and waistband more closely.  There is a drawstring along the top of the neckline that gives quite a bit of adjustability.

I had so much trouble choosing which photos to include in this blog post because I think they’re all gorgeous! So here’s some photo spam.

Clare specifically wanted this outfit to wear to the Valentine’s Day Picnic that she has with her friends near the Botanical Gardens each year. They like to dress pretty/fluffy/romantic for it! Here it is in action.