Staple dress is DONE!

So I finally got around to hemming my Staple dress (April Rhodes patterns) that I started on Sewing Weekend Away:

 There was much swearing and several glasses of wine as my machine seemed hell bent on sucking much of the fabric into the feed plate, but after a good nights sleep - and some reflection- we all got there.... more or less with sanity intact ;)
 I must admit after first assembling this dress - before the shirring - I did think OMG what a SACK! But row by row (16 rows in all) I finally cinched it in enough so that the dress now has some "shape" and shows of what little (post-kids) waist I still have.

Side view showing corset like shirring panel around waist. And yeah I'm thinking that the bra I'm wearing makes my chest look a bit weird too...Also is that a sway back alteration I'm needing???  

I managed to find a belt in my wardrobe that , while not the perfect colour, is a pretty good shape for this style of dress (at least on me). I think future dresses may be planned to tie in with this belt.... 

With belt.

Without belt.

All up I'm pretty happy with this dress pattern. The shirring was a new thing for me to try out but not as scary as I thought it would be. 
The high-low hem is a nice deviation from what I normally make/wear and surprisingly even though the neckline is not low cut I still don't feel like my boobs are the main feature when wearing this! 

The fabric used to make this dress is a vintage John Kaldor fabric that I picked up in a op-shop for a few dollars. I had no idea at the time of buying that John was such a big textile designer both in the Uk and Australia, maybe if I'd know I might have been a bit more careful with the cutting! Who am I kidding? I would have probably NEVER had cut into this had I know, so maybe its just as well...
As far as the fabric goes: make-up is pretty much 210% synthetic (the wrong side sparkles!) plus it has a slight stretch to it, two factors which I think when combined together helped make this murder to hem. The drape however is lovely and the textile design fairly timeless (I've already had a pretty "trendy" friend compliment me on the design). I figured the un-natural fibres would work OK in my wardrobe as long as I didn't the dress in the heat of summer or try to iron it...or near an open flame.
I added my usual 10-15 cm to length and unfortunately did not think about pocket placement post lengthening enough to make them practicable. My pocket got hacked out as they ended up being in the knee region, not a good look on anyone I think!

This dress has already had a short outing in public, while in mummy capacity, and fared well (dare I say) for something I slapped together made myself;)
More pics to follow.

'Til then...

Happy Sewing!

Kate x