Miaow!
Remember when I was talking about needing to sew practical things - like stuff I'd wear when working at home?
Well, this is NOT that! And I'm not sorry at all.
This is a half-circle skirt sun-dress in HELLO KITTY FABRIC. Yeah, Hello Kitty fabric. The Japanese cartoon feline overlord is officially part of my wardrobe. Hurrah! And of course I made it with matching Hello Kitty buttons. Because if you're going to use Hello Kitty fabric, you might as well go all out and get matching buttons, right?? (my Instagram peoples agreed with this logic when I did a little informal poll over the weekend...)
I bought this cotton poplin fabric from Guthrie and Ghani AGES ago (so the dress does fill one of my criteria in that it uses stuff from my stash) but I could never quite figure out what to make. It's yellow, for a start and that's not a colour I wear very often, and I could never work out what to make that wouldn't look insane. So it languished in my stash, destined to eventually become dull like pajamas or some-such.
And then I made the Adelaide dress and started pondering on the whole concept of button-down shirt-dresses and the idea for the Hello Kitty Hawthorn was born.
Ta Dah!
Full disclosure, I'm totally unoriginal, and am plagiarising the amazing Kat's Hello Kitty dress here. I loved Kat's version when she made it last year, but I've never really thought I could wear stuff that buttons down the front. I've never quite mastered the FBA and I assumed I'd have to do that on any nice shirt-dress patterns. I have also had a serious fear of buttonholes. This is madness, obviously, but ever since I got my 'new' machine (which is over 18 months ago now), I've been unable to work out how to do them. It's a 1 step buttonhole function, so it really should have been easier than on my old 4-step machine, but the last time I tried to do them it went Very Badly, so I was too scared to try again.
But for some reason, I decided I really really wanted to make a Hello Kitty Hawthorn dress. I figured could conquer my fear of buttonholes, and try the whole shirt-dress concept out. Hawthorn seemed like a good entry-level version...it's a flat collar and a faux placket, and Colette patterns are great for talking you through new processes, so it all sort of seemed like a good starting point.
I really like this dress!! It'd be hard not to like a Hello Kitty dress I think, though this did make it a bit hard. The buttonhole function was totally mastered (it really isn't hard, who knew?!) Fit though...oy. I made a toile of the bodice in a size 10 and it seemed to be fine. There was a bit of excess on the side seams, but the bust darts fit spot-on, so I figured I'd just use a bigger seam allowance on the sides and it'd all be tea and crumpets. Alas, it was not the case.
Damn did I have issues with the fit on this! I made it, attached the skirt and when I tried it on, I realised the bodice was way too long on me. That's never happened - I don't think I'm short-waisted - but it was clear that I needed to shorten the bodice by a good inch. And there was at least an inch of excess in the side seams of the bodice. Grr. This was annoying because naturally I'd already overlocked the waist-seam. Cue an intense period of unpicking on Sunday!
Anyway, blah blah blah - I made the adjustments, stitched it all back together and tried it back on. I don't know. I think I need to make a size 6. It's ok with a belt, but it's still fairly loose-fitting and I feel like the shape would really suit being properly fitted, you know? In saying that, if I went to a size 6, perhaps I would need to do an FBA? I think I'll make another one in a 6 but just use the size 10 dart...will that work do you think? The dart really is in the perfect spot and this pattern is drafted for a C-D cup which means it does have plenty of room. Ah well. I reckon Hello Kitty needs a belt anyway - it adds definition and breaks up all the yellow.
It's really really cold here today. Back down to a high of about 11 degrees, and I have the heating on, so we are not in the midst of sundress weather at all. Kitty needs a cardy at the mo! But as soon as the sunshine is out, I'm going to revel in this dress. Fit issues aside, it's still a dress made in crazy Hello Kitty fabric and you can't help but kind of love that!
Post-script: I tried to take a video of me twirling around in this (because a half-circle skirt needs to be twirled) and I made myself actually sick. Like crawl-to-the-bathroom-and-vomit sick. Blergh. This is what comes of the madness of taking photos for blog posts! (And having issues with my inner ears and balance). No more twirling for you Ms Kitty!
Remember when I was talking about needing to sew practical things - like stuff I'd wear when working at home?
Well, this is NOT that! And I'm not sorry at all.
This is a half-circle skirt sun-dress in HELLO KITTY FABRIC. Yeah, Hello Kitty fabric. The Japanese cartoon feline overlord is officially part of my wardrobe. Hurrah! And of course I made it with matching Hello Kitty buttons. Because if you're going to use Hello Kitty fabric, you might as well go all out and get matching buttons, right?? (my Instagram peoples agreed with this logic when I did a little informal poll over the weekend...)
I bought this cotton poplin fabric from Guthrie and Ghani AGES ago (so the dress does fill one of my criteria in that it uses stuff from my stash) but I could never quite figure out what to make. It's yellow, for a start and that's not a colour I wear very often, and I could never work out what to make that wouldn't look insane. So it languished in my stash, destined to eventually become dull like pajamas or some-such.
And then I made the Adelaide dress and started pondering on the whole concept of button-down shirt-dresses and the idea for the Hello Kitty Hawthorn was born.
Ta Dah!
 |
| Please forgive all the rubbish in this pic. We're about to get the conservatory re-tiled, and soon it will be tidy and perfect for indoor blog pictures! Also, I couldn't crop them because the update to my stupid work laptop has caused Microsoft's photo editor to vanish. Must fix that issue... |
Full disclosure, I'm totally unoriginal, and am plagiarising the amazing Kat's Hello Kitty dress here. I loved Kat's version when she made it last year, but I've never really thought I could wear stuff that buttons down the front. I've never quite mastered the FBA and I assumed I'd have to do that on any nice shirt-dress patterns. I have also had a serious fear of buttonholes. This is madness, obviously, but ever since I got my 'new' machine (which is over 18 months ago now), I've been unable to work out how to do them. It's a 1 step buttonhole function, so it really should have been easier than on my old 4-step machine, but the last time I tried to do them it went Very Badly, so I was too scared to try again.
But for some reason, I decided I really really wanted to make a Hello Kitty Hawthorn dress. I figured could conquer my fear of buttonholes, and try the whole shirt-dress concept out. Hawthorn seemed like a good entry-level version...it's a flat collar and a faux placket, and Colette patterns are great for talking you through new processes, so it all sort of seemed like a good starting point.
I really like this dress!! It'd be hard not to like a Hello Kitty dress I think, though this did make it a bit hard. The buttonhole function was totally mastered (it really isn't hard, who knew?!) Fit though...oy. I made a toile of the bodice in a size 10 and it seemed to be fine. There was a bit of excess on the side seams, but the bust darts fit spot-on, so I figured I'd just use a bigger seam allowance on the sides and it'd all be tea and crumpets. Alas, it was not the case.
Damn did I have issues with the fit on this! I made it, attached the skirt and when I tried it on, I realised the bodice was way too long on me. That's never happened - I don't think I'm short-waisted - but it was clear that I needed to shorten the bodice by a good inch. And there was at least an inch of excess in the side seams of the bodice. Grr. This was annoying because naturally I'd already overlocked the waist-seam. Cue an intense period of unpicking on Sunday!
Anyway, blah blah blah - I made the adjustments, stitched it all back together and tried it back on. I don't know. I think I need to make a size 6. It's ok with a belt, but it's still fairly loose-fitting and I feel like the shape would really suit being properly fitted, you know? In saying that, if I went to a size 6, perhaps I would need to do an FBA? I think I'll make another one in a 6 but just use the size 10 dart...will that work do you think? The dart really is in the perfect spot and this pattern is drafted for a C-D cup which means it does have plenty of room. Ah well. I reckon Hello Kitty needs a belt anyway - it adds definition and breaks up all the yellow.
It's really really cold here today. Back down to a high of about 11 degrees, and I have the heating on, so we are not in the midst of sundress weather at all. Kitty needs a cardy at the mo! But as soon as the sunshine is out, I'm going to revel in this dress. Fit issues aside, it's still a dress made in crazy Hello Kitty fabric and you can't help but kind of love that!
Post-script: I tried to take a video of me twirling around in this (because a half-circle skirt needs to be twirled) and I made myself actually sick. Like crawl-to-the-bathroom-and-vomit sick. Blergh. This is what comes of the madness of taking photos for blog posts! (And having issues with my inner ears and balance). No more twirling for you Ms Kitty!
Ahhh it looks SO great! Especially with the orange cardi! So impressed that you tackled your fear of button holes - I'm a classic button hole avoider. It always seems to work on my 'practice' round, and then I get to my garment and the machine chews it up... Maybe I need to make a Hawthorn! x
ReplyDeleteThanks hon! It's so funny that we avoid certain techniques isn't it?! I'm surprised though - you're such a fearless sewist! You should definitely give Hawthorn a go...or maybe the Grainline Archer? I can see you wearing that! X
Delete