Finished Project: My first, ever, midi-length dress; frock for Get Your Frock On!

Lets quickly skip past the fact that I made another Georgia (groan, groan, groan), and focus on the fact that this is my first, ever, midi-length dress. 

Okay, I know it’s not technically midi; but it’s below the knee and bordering on calves territory, so that’s enough for me to call this a midi-Georgia . Just easing myself into the trend, guys, plus only had 1.5m of fabric ;)

It’s no secret that my love for Georgia is bordering on obsessive – this is my fifth Georgia – so with this version I was committed to perfecting the fit, everywhere.

I went into this project with the mentality that Clover unpicker and I would be spending a lot of time together.

Here we go....

Fitting the bodice - I pointed out in my last post that I noticed the bodice was sitting about 3cms above the underwire of my bra, therefore not doing their job as cups. It was challenging because adding 3cm back into the ‘length’ of the bodice was essentially reversing the SBA I had already done. I gave it a shot anyway, making sure that the 3cm added were above the apex, and making sure that it did not affect the measurement of the neckline. It seems to have worked.

In both photos, I have my finger on my bra underwire.
You can see the difference between the last bodice I made and this bodice, where I have lengthened it by 3cm.

Lower back - I usually avoid RTW dresses that are fitted around the hips/lower back/bum area because I can guarantee that there will be unattractive drag lines; and when sewing, every pattern needs massive tweaking.

With this dress, there was pool of fabric in the lower back (no surprise), had to 'pinch it out'.
This adjustment does get easier and easier, but I figured it was time to transfer the adjustment to my pattern pieces.

Goodbye pool of fabric in the lower back. The purple dots is where I snipped.

The straps – I recall the original straps are quite long and I shortened them when I traced the pattern – here both straps the same length, but ended up taking out some length as I was fitting. 

Difference between left and right strap is 0.75cm.

Lengthening the mini-Georgia skirt -  I am a complete air head because the Georgia pattern comes with a knee-length version. Duh.  Anyway, I added 18cm to the mini-Georgia cos that's all I could afford with my yardage; was aiming for above-the-knee, but hello, look who can't do maths.

I rarely wear skirts/dresses that are mid-knee or below knee because anything longer than above-the-knee makes me look dowdy, and emphasizes the fullness of my calves, and not in a good way.

Originally I was aiming for above-the-knee, but added too much length. Decided to just go for it... it did look dowdy but after I pegged the skirt, I loved it.

Pegging the skirt and adding split/vent – I used my favourite pencil skirt as a guide and pegged (in?) the side seams. Of course this meant that the skirt could no longer be hitched up after having too many vodka-sodas... so I added a split/vent on the left side of the dress, cos I can't get enough of thigh splits.
I had to shave off some width at the hips as well.

Pegging! The purple dots is where I snipped.

Split/vent.

Very proud of my hand stitching. Best so far.

If at first you don't succeed... just keep sewing randomly.

Had to unpick the zipper, but the result was worth it.

Finished project. Very happy ending.

This dress turned out exactly how I pictured in my mind. This is the dress I have wanted to make ever since I started sewing. This dress is why I am grateful that #isew.

I have never been able to fit anything RTW that has this fitted silhouette or is this length.
A small upper body and larger lower body means that anything that fits my bust, won’t fit my bum and vice versa; anything slightly lowcut will gape; lower back will have drag lines and a pool of fabric; and the length is always unflattering.

Skirt split.

Skirt split in action.

The inside seams were 'turned and stitched' on the machine, the lining was hand stitched using the 'fell stitch', and hem was finished using same method.

'Fell stitch' - practically invisible. Need to unpick my stay-stitching.

Still can't believe I forgot the pattern comes with a knee-length version. Facepalm.

Inside, understitching on the machine.

Project details -

Pattern: sounding like a broken record, but it's my all time favourite pattern, BHL 'Georgia'.
Size: Bust 2/6, Waist 6/10, Hips 2/6.
Fabric:  1.5m cotton sateen; selvedge folded the middle to fit all the pieces.
Notions: 16" invisible zipper, thread.
Cost: $25 fabric, $5 zipper.
Pattern Modification/Adjustments: as detailed in post.
Hours: roughly 13 hours; most of the time spent was on unpicking, adjustments and tweeting.
Completed on: Tuesday 14th October 2014.
First worn: Thursday 16th October 2014, to GYFO Melbourne Fundraiser.

I made this dress to wear to GYFO Melbourne Charity Frocktails fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer.
It was a fun night; the function was at Fall from Grace, a beautiful venue hidden behind a bookcase; entertaining us was Emily Williams; and there were awesome raffle prizes kindly donated by sponsors - skincare, wine, expensive candles, restaurant gift cards, movie tickets, kilos of chocolate goodies...

I'm gonna swing from the chandelier...

I'm blue, da ba dee da ba die... 

I ain't goin' no where, I can't be stopped now cos it's "Tim Tams" for life.

Bonus points if anyone can pick the lyrics in the photo captions.

I won one of the Arnott's Hamper!!!! I spent the following 4 days aggressively eating them on my lounge room floor, till my sister came and took the hamper away. This is the third "prize" I've won in my life, so got over excited: first thing I ever won was the Hanson 'Snowed In' CD when I was 10 years old, second thing I won was Gold Class movie tickets from a function last year, probably cos I was the only person there who used social media and knew what hashtags were uploading photos on to Twitter using their event hashtag, lol.

I have two events coming up in November, you bet your sweet ass I will be sewing something for them. Happy sewing!