Mazakon Makes

Mazakon Makes

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Maeve's Mad as a Frog dress

The middle daughter has inherent good taste - much better than mine I suspect. This is the second time she has chosen fabric that I have thought secret bad thoughts about and it has come up trumps. I give you Maeve's Mad As A Frog dress:

Maeve's Mad As A Frog Dress
How cool is that? The frog is quite unexpected in this flowery material. We bought it a few months ago and she kept going to look at the material and have a laugh. So I positioned a big frog right in the middle of the front bodice for maximum giggles:


Croak


I had been looking for a very basic pattern to crack out a few dresses for the girls. Most of the dresses they have go by the basic shape of a sleeveless bodice and gathered skirt. My friend Judith passed on a pattern to me that her mother had got in the Prima magazine in July and didn't want and it was perfect (and free). It will be easy to customise and embellish (which I can be bothered thinking about that).

It has an invisible zip which I was feeling quite trepidatious about inserting. As it turns out I had good reason. I watched a free Craftsy class on zipper insertion and felt that I could give it a whirl. I have an invisible zipper foot and it LOOKS okish but  a) the bloody zip is too short (argh!) b) the zip is hard to take up and down - I think I sewed too close, but the invisible zipper foot meant I couldn't go further away c) I put it too high up so you can see it sticking out of the top d) there is a wee gap at the bottom where the bodice meets the skirt. So basically I need to do it again. Being impatient I wanted to get it up here anyway and will fix problems soon.

      
Invisible zipper: looks ok, but it's crap
She is pleased with it and wants it to be her party dress. Bless her heart, she is a mother maker's dream - her current party dress is one I made for her big sister that she refused to wear but she loves.

2 comments:

  1. That's fabulous - and well done on the zip! If you want the easiest ever girl's dress pattern, try shirring. Makes things very easy indeed: sew a tube, shirr, add sleeves if desired.

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    Replies
    1. And does it look good? I don't even know what shirring is! Is it sewing elastic in to gather? Thanks for the suggestion!

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