Our final challenge was deceivingly simple: create an outfit that expresses your own unique style, using at least two handmade items. This one really got me thinking about what I wear and why I wear it. Most of my wardrobe these days consists of dresses with a fitted bodice and a wide skirt, casual jackets, flats and boots. I'll wear a necklace now and then but I usually forget to put on jewelry (except for a few piercings I never take out). My clothes have to be comfortable and easy to wear and combine, so I don't have to spend ages putting outfits together.
So for this challenge I made my favourite silhouette in prints I love, easy as that. I had a totally different idea for the jacket at first, but halfway through making it I changed my mind because it felt wrong with this dress. It will still be finished because it's an awesome project, but this second idea works a lot better! In the end I went for the Rigel bomber by Papercut Patterns, a pattern I've made before (that version gets tons of wear and I think it will be the same for this one!). This is an incredibly quick make by the way, I cut the jacket out one evening and it was done the next afternoon!
The fabric is an Indonesian cotton ikat I bought online some time ago. It's a lovely fabric but I only had a very small piece so it sat around in my stash waiting for the perfect pattern to come along! I opted to sacrifice some fabric to match the print at the side seams and cut the sleeves out of a black cotton. It breaks up the busy print a bit and makes the jacket a lot more versatile! The hem, sleeves and neck are finished with black ribbing.
I also lined the jacket in the same way I did before: make an outer shell and a lining and baste the two together before installing the zipper and ribbing. I then added the facing and catchstitched it down to the lining for a clean finish. It looks lovely and gives the outer fabric a bit more structure!
I'm really happy with this jacket, it might be my favourite thing I've made for this contest! It's going to get tons of wear. Now onto the dress, of which I'm already flashing a bit of sparkly hem here...
The pattern is the By Hand London Flora dress, and I wanted to make this as soon as it came out. It was the first BHL pattern I've used, and I think there will be more in the future! It has everything I love in a dress, and fitting it wasn't too hard.
I made the faux wrap variation with the straight skirt and used a cotton from Ikea for the shell. It has a lovely print of all kinds of biological illustrations, and I grabbed it as soon as I saw it! The jacket and dress might be a bit much for some people, but I absolutely love it. The two prints just go really well together in my book!
I just really love wearing dresses like this. They make me feel put together but I'm comfortable enough to ride my bike and pet dogs. I love finding prints and fabrics that fit my taste and the mood I'm going for in my outfits!
This is the only alteration I made (aside from taking some length out of the shoulders): adding pockets! Dresses just get so much better with pockets. I need a place to put my bits of paper and keys (to then forget about them and toss them into the washing machine).
So again, thank you so much for the support, everyone! I've enjoyed this competition tremendously (yes, even when I spent hours and hours glueing bits of paper to a dress). It's been incredibly inspiring and rewarding to see such a positive response to the things I make. Woohoo!
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