Miz Mozelle...... Modified

Hi everyone, sorry for the radio silence. I've been busy sewing but have been having one of those periods where I find it impossible to get photos of the things I've made. Does that happen to you too?

One of my recent makes has been the Jamie Christina Miz Mozelle Dress. I bought this pattern after seeing Cirque Du Bebe's version. My goodness she looks so gorgeous in it.

When I got the pattern I had second thoughts. I didn't really think I could pull off the Peter Pan collar without looking too cutesy. Especially with my cropped hair cut. So I thought I would give the pattern away. But then in Sydney Leith and I were walking past a very cute shop in Surrey Hills that had an extremely similar dress in the window, just not with a Peter Pan collar or keyhole. So I did a very simple modification to the Miz Mozelle pattern:

As you can see, a very complicated alteration there. I just followed the CF line up to the neckline and cut the whole bit on the fold. This is how it turned out:

I bound the neckline as I didn't have the collar. I also didn't add the elastic. This was because I thought I was being really smart and sewed the bodice pieces to their skirt pieces BEFORE sewing the side seams. This of course mean that it wasn't possible to create a casing out of the seam allowances. Woops. Ah well - the belt brings it all in so I'm not too worried.

The fabric is either from Tessuti or the Remnant Warehouse. I bought some from each place. I made something out of the Tessuti length but then chopped it back up again as I didn't like it.

So - what do you think of the modification? I'm thinking of making another version in some Liberty jersey I have - what do you think?

Mission Maxi - Modified

A few months ago (!) I made the Jamie Christina Mission Maxi Dress. I'm sure you're all familiar with this lovely pattern. I loved the dress made up as designed, but felt a bit self conscious when wearing it. It is designed to be form-fitting and I'm still not super-confident about my stomach after having a baby. I'm probably being a bit silly but I just couldn't relax when wearing it.

So I had the idea to modify the pattern to make it more 'flowy'. This was pretty easy. I just angled each pattern piece out from the bottom of the armhole. I did this after talking to Lisa about how she modified hers when in Tessuti one day. It was probably the most simple modification I've ever made.

So here she is:

You can sort of see my pattern matching here 

I made it in two remnants of viscose jersey I picked up in the Tessuti remnant sale. I've still got a lot of fabric left from the remnants, so this dress probably only cost me about $10 in fabric. Definitely my cheapest make of late.

I made a little belt to wear with it as Michael told me it was a bit too sack-like (I really can't help it - I love a good sack! I'm obviously a slob at heart).

I like it left loose too. This was my first time attaching binding in this manner on jersey and I love the finished product. The pattern directs you to stitch in the ditch around the binding on the front and it produces such a nice finish.

I have worn this dress ALOT this summer. I'm wearing it now with a cardigan (and without the belt - sorry honey!). I'm thinking I might even be able to wear it in autumn/early winter with boots and a thicker cardi. What do you think?