Welcome to the Red, White & Pink Blog Tour, and thanks Tibeca for having me along. It’s convenient that one of my sewing groups is also asking, or is that encouraging, us to sew lace this month. As such I made a “Pretty in Pink” dress with lace trims! I like lace: it’s pretty and feminine and is a lot less Itchy & Scratchy than it used to be. I still own the dress I made for my 18th birthday. It’s a cream lace dress over an iridescent blue /purple underdress. Sadly it doesn’t fit anymore. It is very 80’s and I love it still.
February is a lovely month. because my Sister’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day, and my Uncle Val’s name always reminds me of love and good things romantic like. I dedicate this blog post to them both, but don’t have photos of my uncle. Happy Birthday Chrissie!
But onto the sewing … it’s a pattern hack of another Designer Stitch Pattern, the newly released Synthia blouse. As a tester I made this soft, feminine, romantic top. I love the early Chanel feel of the blouse, how it skims over my lumpy bits yet holds a feminine form. I thought it would make a lovely dress. Oh, it’s also still on sale!
The Synthia blouse is easy to make. I made my top in the shorter length to wear with a skirt. Of course, that is why I am wearing it with leggings in the photos. Go figure! I do like tops I wear with skirts to be shorter than those I wear with trousers. I made a slight sway back adjustment, which means I pinched out the excess fabric from the back waist to stop it looking like I had a back fabric ‘Joey pouch’. My muslin went on and off without undoing the zipper, so I left it out; and oh the ruffles! The ‘Waterfall’ ruffle is ingenious! It seems a bit disconcerting until you have it all together – then the lightbulb moment occurs and its, “Wow! This really is clever”.
I cut the bodice at waist length for my dress. It would have been a good idea to check the length as the back was about 2″ shorter than the front! A carefully placed extra piece of fabric and hey, no one knew … until now. I didn’t want to spend the time double roll hemming the ruffle and bottom hems, so serged the fabric edges and then sewed the lace on top of it – all 5.5m of it!! I didn’t realize the lace was directional and if you look closely you’ll see that it is one way on the ruffles and upside down (or is that down side up?) on the skirt hem. I’m happy with the result. It’s certainly not a store bought dress!
I copied the lines of a Hot Patterns Casbah Skirt pattern, which made the skirt a quick and dirty affair. I omitted the zipper again, but should have kept it as my DD cup makes it harder to take off a dress than a blouse!
Finally I made another Obi belt, the same belt I featured in my recent blog post. I sewed loads of fancy stitches on it to give it a bit more substance, but should have interfaced it! 
Photos were interesting. It was blinking cold outside at our local Riverside Park. A lady asked me if I was determined to catch pneumonia while we were traipsing around. OOPS! We eventually decamped in doors. I paired the dress with one of my favourite hats and some retro looking shoes. All in all I feel glam in a very comfortable dress.
If you like to sew your patterns and need some support with hacking them I encourage you to come on over to Sew Your Pattern Stash FaceBook Group. Our resident Sewing Wise Woman, Roberta, is hosting (and posting) a pattern hack month-long-sew-along. It should be fun and I hope to learn a lot! See Marsha, there were hiccups and errors aplenty on this one! It’s why I am a good seamstress but not a pattern designer. I leave that to the other talented people.
Thanks for dropping by. I hope you had a good read and it made you smile. Please check out the other blogs on the tour …
Let’s get inspired!
February 1st: Sewing By Ti (intro), Mahlica Designs
2nd: Sewing With D
3rd: Sewing With Sarah
Sunday, February 4th: Tenille’s Thread
5th: My Heart will Sew On
7th: Stitched By Jennie
8th: EYMM
9th: With Love In Every Stitch
10th: The Bear and the Pea Atelier
Sunday, February 11th: Our Play Place
12th: My Sewing Roots
13th: Margarita on the Ross
14th: Very Blissful
15th: Seams Sew Lo
16th: Sew Sew Ilse
17th: Aurora Designs
Sunday, February 18th: Sewing Scientist
19th: Manning the Machine
20th: The Fairy Dust Bin
21st: Hazelnut Handmade
22nd: Kate Will Knit
23rd: Lulu & Celeste
24th: Flaxfield Sewing
Sunday, February 25th: Twinado Alley
26th: Ma Moose
27th: Auschick Sews
28th: Oak Blue Designs
Sew Far North 
Your dress makes a really cool retro looking outfit with the hat and shoes!
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Thank you so much. I do love hats and shoes … if only I could make those too!
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Your dress is fabulous, you look so classy! I feel like that is the perfect dress for High Tea!
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What a great dress! It looks fabulous on you!
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I enjoyed seeing your projects! Beautiful work!!
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Lovely
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