I am not completely out of touch with the current high street fashion, although it is everything I sew against! In fact it is where I get most of my inspiration from. I regularly ‘shop’ without actually purchasing… maybe sometimes!
Since sewing, I have only bought a few items, most I have copied or resorted to copying because they didn’t have a plus size version. And now I have become really Fussy with what I buy, Not saying that I have been blind to fast fashion before, I just have a lot more time and energy to invest in sewing it myself. But when i do buy, it is usually something I can’t make, like a band tee or a vintage denim jacket. Also, most recently i threw out all my old knickers and just bought multi packs from Primark… and some Pokemon socks… some things you just have to buy.
One thing i have seen is oversized low back jersey Dresses. Mainly in Urban Outfitters and the likes, so I decided to make one. This ended up being a Hack of a recent Hack (Hackception?) I redrew the pattern from the cross dress, which was originally a Luisa from Wear lemonade, Just without the button front I added.
For the back I cut the V much deeper than I did on the pattern, and added a strip of fabric across the shoulders to hold it on. This I cut far too long, I had originally sewn it neatly into the binding, unfortunately it needed to be about a third of the size i measured. It wasn’t as neat a finish as first attempt, but on its not noticeable. The string ended up sitting much higher than I thought.
I really buggered up the sleeve as well with a blind hem on the over locker. But luckily I had cut the length ridiculously long and had more than enough to play with and not end up with 3/4 sleeves as I first feared.
The Fabric itself is from Girl Charlee, and had been in my stash quite a while before I finally paired it with this idea.
When I first tried it on I was unsure of the print, I though it made the garment look a little frumpy (keep in mind this was slipped on over my Pjs!) Once dressed up with a pair of boots chucked on, it was much better.
One thing I am still debating is spraying it with bleach to give it a more contemporary feel (another thing I have seen done a lot on the high street) I love the rust colour tones you get from the process. Unfortunately I have used all the fabric (only ordered a small amount and the trapeze skirt used up a lot) so I haven’t got any to mess up.
Oh well, I will have to see.