Spring/Summer Palette Challenge: The Dress

Holy moly, I am excited for this one. I have had this material & pattern matched up in my head for a while, but it's one of those projects that you just never really end up getting around to? Not this time!
I bought this pattern quite spur of the moment, and was initially drawn to the interesting bodice & the deep looking pockets.

I've been quite jealous of all the people that have made Gerties Bombshell Dress, but i knew i'd never get around to buying to the course (I'm just lazy really!). Seeing this pattern made me think of her design so I thought why not?

I like the idea of having a contrasting colour outlining the bodice, so I'm making version B.

For my fabric I've chosen the rather bright orange/black African wax cotton I picked up in a closing down sale from a fabric shop that's been located in my hometown ever since I can remember (very sad).
I'm going to stick with black cotton as the contrasting fabric.

I'm gonna warn you all now, this pattern is NOT for the faint hearted. There are 20 pattern pieces, then there's the lining & interfacing as well! I'm currently in a sea of fabric & tissue paper.

However I am excited to get started on this as despite the amount involved it looks like the construction should be really interesting.

I also wanted to quickly share something I came across while I was re-hemming a 1950's dress for my car show stall, I realised something very familiar about the thread I was using.

On the instructions of one of my 1950's blouse patterns there is an advert for this exact thread!

I thought it was pretty cool that I was using 1950's thread to repair a dress from the same era?!

Sew Cinematic Inspiration Post: Dress

In the midst of all this 'Mad Men' madness I thought I would take the time to share some images that I'm thinking of using as inspiration for the ongoing Sew Cinematic challenge that you can read about on Rhinestones & Telephones blog if you click the badge on the left hand side.

For the dress part of the challenge I've decided to make a 'little blue dress' inspired by Zooey Deschanel's character in '500 Days Of Summer'.
As we're now entering Spring, I've been wanting to make a dress using a light blue cotton or denim and the character of Summer is near enough always wearing blue of some kind in this movie.

For more inspiration I've been scrolling through Asos to see what RTW items are available

I like the idea of adding some cute details to the dress like scallops, lace, bows or maybe even some embroidery? I'm also thinking about making it sleeveless, or at the most with cap sleeves. 

I'm also really tempted to make myself a dark denim skirt after seeing the still from the movie!

Are you taking part in the challenge? If so, what have you decided to make?

500 Days of Summer images taken from here
Little Blue Dresses images taken from here

UFO Part 2: Floral Peter Pan Dress

To conclude my UFO week, I've finally finished this dress! This has been waiting in my pile since last summer & all that needed doing were the armhole facings & the hem, that's it!

The material used is some floral cotton found at Fabric Land which used to be my local fabric store in Portsmouth.

Only the bodice is lined with the same black cotton used for the peter pan collar. There are also side seam pockets & a cute tie at the back.

The only thing I'm a little ashamed of is the awful zipper! I must add that this was a dress I made at the beginning of my sewing adventures & I have since learned how to correctly insert a zipper. If I was a perfectionist I suppose I could re-do it, but alas I cannot be bothered! Otherwise a perfect little summer dress!