Saturday, November 5, 2016

A Designed by Diana Dress (With a Little Help From Burda)

Well, I've been away for quite a while I guess. I've been and still am very sick because of allergies symptoms which affect my respirator system. I thought once colder weather appeared, I'd feel better but I guess my immune system has been compromised . Even writing a post is almost overwhelming right now

 BUT!!!!! I've been able to sew all this time because my sewing room, which is in the basement of our house, has become my haven/prison. It's the only place where I'm not affected and where I get relief. Almost all of the sewing I did in October was for Good Will. and I did a lot of it. I'll show you next time .

A while back, I received  a  complimentary issue of both  My image and Be Trendy magazine and the company , Made By Oranges,  based in the Netherlands,  kindly offered a 25% discount to  any of my readers who wished to subscribe to either My Image or Be Trendy (the adorable children's version ).
Use discount code PASSIONISTA to get your 25% savings.
Each magazine includes 20 or so  patterns and include 3 pdfs (down loadable ) patterns. I'm in the process of using one of the patterns for dresses for Riley and Poppy. Very cute!!!

It took me about six weeks from beginning to end to make the dress I'm showing you today, working on it a little at a time and I love the results. I designed it myself with a little inspiration from the photo below. (not sure where it came from ) and with the help of this Burda pattern.




The fabric is a ponte print from my stash and bought at Fabricville with real leather accents cut from a Michael Kors skirt bought at Value Village. The grosgrain ribbon with grommets trim,  I bought on Rue Saint Hubert in Montreal a couple of years ago. And Voila!



A close-up of the leather and trim details. I applied the leather shoulder sections over the  fabric then the grommet trim overlapping the edge of the leather. Believe me my friends, I used a lot  of Wonder Tape for this project.

If yo not familiar with Wonder Tape, it's a wash away two way tape
that is very useful for placements when you're not sure where you want to place them because you can move the around before you decide.



I added leather trimmed patch pockets and repeated the shoulder details at the cuffs. For the sleeve I used  a poly ottoman from my stash because of it's dark black shade .



I added the same shoulder details in the back as well as an exposed zipper, a look  which I love.




For my dress I used my Burda sloper developed from Burda 6988. I changed the skirt to a slight A-line  shape for a change from the pencil skirt shape I most often use. I have to say that I'm very happy with the fit of this piece. It's as perfect as I'm ever going to achieve I think.

I wore my new dress to church Sunday and felt like a million dollars. I guess I felt so great to get out of the house. My husband said it was a shame to cover up the dress but I took off the coat at the restaurant afterward.




I'm very happy to finally get back to blogging. I'm still quite weak from my above mentioned allergy problems and I'm  a little worried I won't be able to go to Ottawa for my Riley's 7th birthday in two weeks and so is she!!!!

I hope it won't be as long before my next post. I want to share a special wrap I made and sold to make money for the Food Bank ( so far $150.00!!)

Happy sewing dear sewing friends from