It's My Party And I'll Dress Like an Oil Painting If I Want To

I seem to have started a tradition of making a birthday dress every year! Truth is, I love sewing and wearing 'fancy' things, but I do feel like I need a reason to. So I'll grab any occasion for party dress sewing! And make a dress out of cotton canvas. Hm.

I got this fabric during my trip to Leipzig. My friend Stefhany said she knew a store where she gets her embroidery floss that also sold fabric, and would I like to take a look? HELL YEAH! There wasn't that much interesting stuff (apart from maybe the Kermit-printed sweater stuff with neon green fluffy wrong side) but they had this beautiful floral print in the home decor section. (as well as something with kittens my company made me buy. Not so sure about what that will become though). It looks like an oil painting, especially with the canvas texture!

I mentioned before how I would have to rework my bodice block because my shape has changed a bit over the past few years, and I can proudly say that this is the first dress I've made from a block drafted from scratch! I followed the instructions from this book and then messed around with it until I achieved something acceptable enough for me. (I would write a post about it but I only have weird photobooth muslin pictures and really not that much to say since it wasn't as hard as I expected) The bust fit is maybe a bit weird in these pictures but that's because I got a spontaneous ribcage tattoo on Saturday and I was unable to wear a normal bra!

I kept things very simple, trying to keep the front of the bodice a bit plainer so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by florals and letting them shine on the full circle skirt. I cut the bodice in a single layer so I'd be sure there wouldn't be any floral nipples or other weirdness! The bodice is lined in a thin black cotton, the skirt is unlined and hemmed with a bias facing.

I swear that back seam matched perfectly when I started out... But apparently the amount of ease I had decided on during the muslin stage was a bit too much for this stiffer fabric (or maybe I just made that muslin on a fat day?). In any case, I tried it on after finishing (stupid!) and the back was gaping pretty badly. It wasn't horrible and I doubt anyone who doesn't sew would really notice, but I knew it would bother me forever so I unpicked my hand-picked zipper, took arbout 3 cm out of the back and redid the thing. Much better! I think I'll make the neckline a tiny bit wider the next time, but for now this works well.

This is my 'children's tv-show presenter' impersonation. Hey kids!

I wore this on my birthday party (changing into a fleece onesie at one point for the sake of comfort due to the aforementioned fresh ribcage tattoo) and then the next day on my actual birthday, for a trip to the zoo with Hélène. It was raining so we needed an inside location for pictures, and decided the elephant building was perfect since all the elephants were outside and there was nothing to see inside (so no people either). The trouble was that us being in there made everyone outside think there was something to see, so there was some awkward standing around waiting for a ton of confused people with strollers to leave again. Woops! We also met a slightly crazy guy who kept pointing out dead butterflies. Good times.

Now, can someone organize something that would require me to wear something made out of black velvet and gold sequins please?