The “Feeling Blue” Dress

The Inspiration
I have been missing France, missing Paris. I can’t help but feel blue at the thought of it. Besides reminiscing through instagram, I decided to wear my favourite city. With all the feeling ‘blue’ and colour theme of my fabrics, you should have guessed the theme for this week’s challenge at Sew Weekly.

The Dress
I chose a sweetheart neckline. The cliché, if you get it, is unintended. The skirt is the tricky part. As the words run perpendicular to the selvage, it took me a while to decide if it should be cut on bias. Straight in your face or the arty-farty less obvious orientation. I choose the latter.

After drafting out the skirt, I conveniently cut out two quarters (of a circle), instead of 1 quarter for the front and 2 eighths for the back. This leaves me with a seam down the centre front if I were to attach the zip down the centre back which I always do. As I insist that prefer back zips, I pinned the bodice to the skirt just to double confirm how the seam down the centre front would affect the aesthetics of the ensemble. It turned out to be quite hideous so I had to resort to side zips. That means being extra careful with the hair and makeup when I wear the dress.

There were extra fabric so I made interfacings and bias tapes to go with the Parisian theme as well.

The Fabric
What I really enjoy about being able to sew is the part where I manage the fabric – both the prints, colours and type. You decide exactly what fabric and colour(s) to use, what kind of prints – from your favourite florals to city maps, as long as you dare to wear it. I rummaged through my stash of fabrics to retrieved all my Paris/France-themed numbers. They are all cotton and happen to be blue of some sort. I stared hard at them and finally picked the less loud of the lot and matched it with a navy silk linen blend. I am not that brave to wear the entire Paris on myself yet, thus an introductory street names/attractions de Paris. Let’s see, among those featured, I’ve been to Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Lourve, Musée d’Orsay, Notre Dame, Parc du Champ de Mars, et Rue di Rivoli. You can find them here!

Signing off with a clearer view of the sweetheart neckline and missing Paris even more!

The Blair Skirt

The Inspiration: Blair Waldorf’s Schoolgirl Skirt

(gossip-girl-episodes.com)

I went crazy over the colour navy blue so it has to be the first additional to my wardrobe! The first thing that came to mind about blue/navy skirts is the preppy look which I think it’s cute, but I don’t want something that resembles too much like the school uniform (we have lots of school in Singapore with navy blue skirts as their uniform!!!). I want something really simple, yet edgy so Blair’s skirt fits the bill! Though I am not a huge fan of Gossip Girl (in terms of the scandalous plot and all), I have to admit that I followed three and a half seasons solely for fashion sake.

The Skirt: I figured out that it is a simple gathered skirt with an attached sash at the waistband
Fabric: Cotton mix (which frays like there’s no tomorrow!! ARGH!!!) from local store

I could have:

• Used a glossier and sturdier fabric
• Used a flared skirt pattern, instead of the rectangle (lazy me!)
• Take in another 2cm or so on each side. It’s a tad loose.