Grace

Well hey hey people! How have you been? 

I've been awfully absent but I'm still here, sewing away. I'm currently in between projects and waiting for a decent day to take photos of my new makes as well as cutting out scrap pieces for a quilt and pondering what to make next. Its terribly cold now that winter has come so all I really want to sew is cozy warm things. The Astoria jumper from Seamwork patterns is currently waiting for its fabric friend to arrive so I can whip it up and be all cozy and stylish for work! 

Anyway, I have something rather exciting for you to see - a new dress! 

Oh yes, yes, yes. I have a BIG backlog of things to post so let just get to it then shall we? 

You would have seen this particular lady before in my post about the AGNSW Sixties Night for their Pop to popism exhibit

I ended up naming this girl Grace after Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane who during the 60s wore a myriad of colourful dresses with intricate prints, with Asian and Moroccan details. She was never shy to dress and act as she wished and this dress certainly doesn't recede into the shadows quietly like her namesake

I used Butterick 5466 view A for this dress. It has a wonderful trumpet sleeve shape which I didn't think would be that substantial but it was really pretty once I made it up

The fabric is a thick upholstery type fabric which I picked up from the local opp shop and was originally folded up as some kind of giant floor cushion cover. Once I unpicked it and washed it, you could see it had hardly any markings and was completely clean! 

I wonder now if it was ever used? Perhaps the original owner made up the cushion for their 70s sunken living room and then never got around to using it?

The colours are fantastically vibrant in a sort of Moroccan tile pattern 

The full original cushion over - it measured about 1.5m x 1.5m - quite a decent amount of fabric for only a couple dollars

So pretty!

I made quite a lot of effort to match the pockets up with the fabric, but then I accidently made them too small! They fit my phone and that's about it! 

For the bust shaping, there are no darts along the bust line. Instead there is a double yoke above the line - in a sort of baby doll style and slight gathering under that. Though there didn't end up being much on my version

Super fun sleeves!

I have only got around to wearing this once since the gallery night. It's sooooo much colder now so it will actually be kind of perfect for winter! If I put on some pink tights i'll be just fine! 

What do you think? What do you think the original fabric owner was planning when she or he sewed this cushion?

Thanks for popping in darlings! I'll be sure to post some more things soon

Cat xo