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.