FO: Weldon's 9134

This dress was made with the intention of being the second element of my outfit for this year's Outfit Along. I really wanted this to be great so I was really good and made a muslin first, I was pretty confident it was going to turn out well...and you know what, it really did.

Because this is a vintage, one size pattern I wasn't sure whether it would be the right size, but I'm mostly happy with the fit. I had to remove nearly 4 inches from the length in order to not look like I'd borrowed this dress from a giraffe, but I'm short so this was hardly news. I do have some slight armhole gapeage, but frankly I'm not a perfectionist, it will do.

I did slightly change the order of construction, because I thought I knew better than the pattern. NEWSFLASH: I didn't. Or at least I did, but I didn't actually go and check the exact directions from the last time I did it that way and complications arose. I overcame, but lessons were learned!

The detail which really drew me to this dress was the curved bottom of the bodice, I love the way it rises at the front and dips at the back and has topstitching in order to highlight that. I spent ages thinking about which colour to use for my topstitching. I wanted it to be a detail, but I also didn't want to go too crazy. I was just on the verge of going with baby pink when I remembered a whole load of metallic thread I bought a while back for plying with my handspun. I used a shiny pink and doubled it with the blue thread I used to sew the rest of the dress, I think it's quite a nice effect.

So the dress is a success, but now for the bad news:

NOPE! These items do not an outfit make, or at least not one I'd happily wear in public so this particular combo will not be my entry for the OAL after all. Panic not, I have a plan...sort of...

Outfit Along 2015

The 2015 Outfit Along begins today, so I thought I'd quickly outline my plans for the next couple of months. I'm sure there will be other project snuck in here and there but these are my outfitty type plans. Yes, I did say plans because I'm kind of hoping to squeak out two! We have until the end of July and I'm quietly optimistic that I can knit two cardigans in that time, especially as right now this minute I'm probably sat knitting in a caravan in Norfolk while all of the world's water falls out of the sky on to my holiday.

So, Outfit 1, which will definitely happen, consists of a dress and a cardigan. For the cardigan I'm using Andi Satterlund's Miette, mainly because I was planning on knitting this up soon and I already had the yarn. The yarn is Drops Loves You 5, which is ridonkulously cheap (80p a ball!) and perfect for a summer cardi. For the dress I'm using some lovely chambray to sew a vintage pattern that I got off eBay a little while back. Being a one size pattern I wasn't entirely sure how well it was going to fit, so I was a good girl and made a muslin. On the whole it fits pretty well, however I need to remove about 4 inches from the length. Now I'm the first person to admit that I will never be described as either tall or leggy, but I'm slightly terrified of meeting anybody on whom this would actually be above the knee! Attack of the 50ft woman! I'm still undecided on whether I'm going to add sleeves the sleeves on this or not, but as I won't be cutting out until I get back from my hols I've got some time to mull it over.
Outfit 2 is still not entirely set in stone. For my knitted piece I'm definitely going to be knitting the 'official' OAL pattern, Vianne again by Andi Satterlund. I really liked it as soon as I saw it and it will be nice to join in with the knitalong. I'll be using some Stylecraft Ethical Twist from my stash, probably in it's natural state, but I may consider dyeing it if I change my mind about fabric. I'm leaning towards either of these 2 patterns at the moment, but I reserve the right to change my mind at least 5 times before I cut into the fabric.

So them's my plans, stay tuned to see how I get on.