Putting a bird on it (while flipping the bird)

This post is flippant- on the day after yet another terror attack in the UK it may seem to frivolous for some. I apologise – that’s not my purpose. My purpose is to celebrate the kind of life I value. 

Originally I made this dress to wear to a meeting in London Zoo  (I like to theme my clothes to my meetings). Unfortunately I had to cancel my trip to London as my husband- a firearms officer in the police – was working extra shifts after the Manchester terror attack. So that’s why I’m blogging today about my “put a bird on it” dress – it’s my little way of flipping the bird to @#$@@ who are trying to scare us into changing our ways of life. So in typical British fashion – bugger that for a bunch of bananas let’s crack on with talking sewing. 

So fabric is this flamingo mustard fabric. Not entirely sure what the fabric is – maybe crepe de chine. It’s slippy and lovely but also has enough weight for a dress.

For pattern choice I was torn between a New Look pattern and this Cotton and chalk I got free with a magazine. I went with cotton and chalk because it has a more floaty skirt and it’s been so hot recently I thought that would be cooler.

According to the packet I was a size L- my normal worry is if it will fit the bust so I did a bit of paper fitting and it seemed generous. Very very generous as it turns out.

The facing is a bit of a faff and next time I’ll ditch it and just use bias binding which may reduce the bulk.

Once I’d added the waistband it was obvious the bodice was HUGE on me. There was a lot of pinning and pulling apart. In the end I:

• took 1 inch off the shoulders to raise the bustline and make it less booby
• too 1.5 inches off each side 
• lowered the arm cycle since the arm holes was now quite tight.

If I was to make it again I’d also put most of the bust gathers directly under the boobs rather than spread across the bodice like the pattern says.

Anyway here is the final result. I love it. It’s floaty fun without being mumsy.

So very sadly my flamingos haven’t been able to meet the real thing yet. Instead if you squint your eyes up you can pretend my chicken coop is actually the new gibbon enclosure at London Zoo.

My next meeting is on energy – perhaps I can find some lightning bolt fabric??