June Challenge Dress Three: The Wanda Dress

Image found here

"I wouldn't be caught dead in a full skirt." Well, okay, I would. I love a full skirt but my favourite wing tipped eyeliner sporting, wiggle skirt wearing drape, Wanda Woodward, wouldn't. My third dress is in honour of her. Wanda is a character in the John Water's movie, Cry Baby, played by Traci Lords. She's a total badass and has a killer wardrobe to match.

I used Simplicity 1411 and some cotton sateen. Admittedly, I kind of cheated with this dress. It was a UFO for ages because I wasn't happy with the fit and I thought the June Challenge would be a good opportunity to finally finish it.

Glaring a la Wanda

The darts sat weirdly so I had to change their positioning and take them in, as well as take in the side seams, and finish the seams and the facings. The fit isn't perfect but I have made peace with it.

Smile? Drapes don't smile

I'm actually pretty happy with how this turned out and I totally think Wanda would have worn it.

Okay, maybe I wouldn't be the best drape

For those who haven't seen Cry Baby (you should definitely watch it), a drape is like a greaser. Drapes are the opposite of squares. You dig?

Op-Shopping and a sneak peek

Today, I went op shopping with the lovely Helga von Trollop. This time I remembered my camera but forgot to take any pictures. I'm useless.



I managed to score some stockings in their original packets. I love the cute packaging. One of them has a price sticker for 55 cents on it. I wish they were that cheap now.



I got (another) waspie. I also got a hat and some spoons. My mother promptly stole the hat but it's alright because it looks better on her than it would have on me.

I have finished my final two June Challenge dresses. It got a little Project Runway with me hemming the last dress at 11.30 last night. I always leave things until the last minute. It always seems to work out though. Here's a sneak peek of the two dresses. I haven't had a chance to take some pictures with me wearing them but I will do a post about them when I do.

June Challenge Dress Two: Je voudrais un cafe*

I am lucky enough that my local library has Burda magazines that you can get out on loan. I get them out but hardly ever trace the patterns because it seems like too much work. I actually liked this dress so much that I did get around to tracing it. The dress is called the Parisian dress for whatever reason. I think it's meant to suggest that it's super classy and elegant, much like Parisian women (stereotyping much). Maybe it will make me classy and elegant, but I doubt it considering most of the time I can't be bothered wearing makeup or brushing my hair.

Unlike the last dress I made, this one is actually winter appropriate. I said I was going to make winter dresses for the June Challenge and then went ahead and made a summer dress for my first one. I blame it on 'earthquake brain'. Apparently, it's a thing.



The fabric is a poly blend double knit. It's fairly thick and stable. This is pretty much the first time I've sewn with a knit and it was surprisingly easy. I sewed it on my lovely green Elna supermatic. I wasn't sure how well she would sew it since, being made in the 50s, she wasn't really meant to handle knits. I needn't have worried. She sewed like a champion.

I look really annoyed but this is just how my face looks.

As per usual, I took no notice of the instructions because Burda instructions and I are not friends. I think it's the lack of diagrams. Luckily, it's a pretty basic dress, so I didn't have any trouble.

I love this dress. It's so comfortable. The fabric is lovely and soft. It feels like I'm wearing a sweatshirt but looks slightly classier.

Thanks for all your sweet comments on my last post. Some of you were surprised that I kept sewing and blogging through all the earthquakes. Much in the same way that, in Christchurch, we have to laugh otherwise we'll cry, I have to sew otherwise I will go insane. Amid all the chaos and weirdness, it helps to do normal things. Not to mention the fact that I have been so fortunate. There are so many others here that are having a far tougher time of it that I am.

* Pretty much the only things I remember from 3 years of high school French are related to food and how to order it. Obviously, I have my priorities in order.

June Challenge: The Earthquake Dress

I meant to do this post on Monday but we had two more big aftershocks. The power was knocked out again but thankfully we got it back on in the evening. We're back to boiling all the water too. Luckily, the house wasn't really damaged further. The cracks (including the one above my door which reminds me of the crack in Amy Pond's room) all seem to have got bigger but apart from that there wasn't any significant damage.

I was actually wearing this dress at the time of the big 6.3 magnitude quake. I was also wearing a pair of relatively high heels, which is something I would not recommend.

Nothing about this dress has really gone to plan so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised that my attempt at posting on Monday was thwarted. Do you recognise the pattern? I thought not. That's because the dress looks nothing like the pattern envelope. It's the peplum dress pattern. Once I'd cut it out and started sewing it I decided that I didn't like the way the peplum sat so I got rid of it. The neckline looked funny as well so I folded it back and added two buttons as decoration.

I swear it looks more even in person.

I did lots of handstitching on this. The hem, the armholes and the zip were all done by hand. Usually I hate hand sewing but I found it strangely relaxing this time.

I love the print. The fabric is a thin cotton I've had in my stash for ages. The buttons, zip and cotton were all from my stash as well.

I look slightly stunned. It's probably the lack of sleep.

After all the drama, this dress is kind of...meh. It's okay but I don't love it. Don't get me wrong, I will wear it because I didn't spend all that time hand stitching to just discard it.

I have started on my second dress. I am pretty behind on the June Challenge but, since I (thankfully) don't have any exams, I can hopefully catch up.

June Challenge

I've joined Stephanie's June Challenge. The goal is to sew four summer dresses during the month of June. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, where we are well on our way to colder weather, I've changed it slightly to sewing four winter dresses. I'm hoping that having a deadline will be the kick up the backside I need to actually use the patterns I've bought and some of the fabric from my ever growing stash. I am usually good with deadlines (by this I mean I leave everything until the last second and then scramble to finish it on time, but I always manange to finish). I have a fair idea of what I want to make but will probably change my mind halfway through.

I've had this pattern and two different fabrics to use for ages but I haven't worked up the courage to try it yet. The first fabric is a heavy cotton knit with one way stretch. I haven't really sewn any knits before so I'm approaching this with a feeling of trepidation.



The blue is a merino wool knit that is really stretchy, which could be a problem.




I would love to sew Butterick 8459 (on the right) in a bright red. With some of the main fabric stores in the city having been destroyed/damaged by the earthquake my fabric choices might be pretty limited, so I may not be able to find the fabric I want. I've made the full skirted version of Butterick 8459 twice before so this time I want to make the slim skirt and use some thicker wintery fabric.

I bought the pattern on the left recently because I am obsessed with peplums (if you click to make it bigger you can see the peplum more clearly). I would quite like to make it in a solid colour, maybe a navy blue or grey.