Then I had to wait another day to find out what the next challenge would be. 9am Thursday 24th January Round 2 was announced and the theme was zippers. This is one challenge where I didn't automatically groan I don't mind a good zipper, but how to make my garment stand out.
There had been a lot of discussion in the round one chat thread about colour blocked jumpsuits and this had really gotten into my head and I started sketching a possibility for making a sweater knit jumpsuit using zippers at the wrist and ankle to form a cuff. Maybe even making it zip off at the waist....
But then I also started thinking about a dress that uses zippers to open from a straight skirt to show up big inverted box pleats.
Whilst I was really drawn to the jumpsuit I wasn't sure how it would end up looking.....too much like pajamas?
I decided to put off my final decision till after a trip to the fabric store to see what I could find. I had the sweater fleece in stash to make my jumpsuit but it would need zippers, but I had no idea what I could use for the dress idea.
After searching the fabric store I found this cool batik material in shades of blues purples and reds with gold oval motifs stamped all over it that I thought would look stunning in a dress so I bought enough of that and then a whole bunch of rainbow zippers to go with it to use to expand the skirt.
On the drive home I started thinking that the zippers might actually get a bit lost if I did my entire skirt in the bright fabric and came up with the idea to make the base of the dress out of a black material instead and use the batik in the pleats behind. I really liked this idea as it would really make the zippers stand out in the zipped up version which was the whole point of this challenge. When I got home I went looking for a black fabric I could use. I was originally thinking of one of my pieces of wool suiting but none of them were the right black. Then I saw the black sweater fleece and realised that yes this is what I want as it would make the dress super comfy and therefore more wearable.
So copied from my Pattern Review Entry:
My dress is self drafted using my basic moulage. The bodice is fitted through the bust with princess seams and a waistband.
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| overexposed shot trying to show princess seams |
The black skirt was created by taking my hip dimensions and dividing it by the number of panels I wanted. I had originally planned on 10 but then due to the stretchy nature of the fabric I found that I ended up with a bit too much fabric so removed the back zip and seamed the two back panels together to get the fit I wanted - this also allowed me to add a dart into the center back seam to provide some waist shaping.
There are 9 zippers - in a rainbow of colours - in the skirt. Each zipper was inserted upside down to allow the zipper to open from the bottom to reveal an inverted pleat in the batik material underneath.
Each zipper is sandwiched between the black fleece and the batik pleat material. I was originally planning on binding the zipper edges but decided to incorporate the binding into the pleat to try and reduce bulk a bit. First I sewed the zipper to the sweater fleece making sure I didn't stretch out the fleece. I then ironed a 1/4" turn along the long edge of the pleat fabric and then a second 1/4" turn and sandwiched the outside of the zipper inside this second turn before stitching the pleat material in place along the zipper. This was tedious but produced a great finish.
The sleeves were self drafted using the front and back armhole curves and the dimensions of my bicep, tapering down to a narrow fit at the wrist.
These also expand into colour through a zippered godet along the oustide of the sleeve. As there was no seam here in which to put the zippers I've used the same method as you would for a welt zipper. Rather than a pleat however this zipper conceals a triangular godet as a pleat was too bulky in the sleeve. I used the same technique specified above to bind the godet on the sleeves.
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| Sleeve zipped closed |
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| Sleeves opened up |
A hood was drafted based on the Paprika Patterns Jasper hood pattern and modified to fit my neckline. It is finished with a zipper that overlaps at the apex of the hood and splits and runs around each side of the hood reconnecting at the center front and extending down the center front line into the waistband . This zipper is salvaged from an old suitcase before it was thrown out.
The hood is lined in the batik material and the zipper is sandwiched between the black fleece of the hood and the batick lining. The lining was then finished around the neckline using the burrito method and the last little section of shoulder seam hand stitched in place.
Down the center front of the bodice the edges of the zipper have been bound using double fold binding made from my batick fabric.
Two small jeans zippers are used to make pockets about 1/4 of the way down two of the front skirt panels. These zippers are inserted into the panel using a zipper welt method (Photo 4) and open into small pockets made out of the batick material.
I again used the same method previously mentioned to finish all the edges of the zippers and also the sides of the pocket bag (Photo 5)
To finish the bottom of the skirt I used sections of zipper tape to stabilise the bottom edges of the fleece skirt panels then bound the entire circumference of the skirt in the batik material.
I treated the bottom of the sleeve in the same fashion and also bound the final seam joining the bodice to the skirt.
The Inside looks almost as pretty as the outside.
Embellishment:
I knew from the beginning of this contest that I wanted to try my hand at making some sort of embellishment using the zipper tape and so I decided to make myself a zipper elephant (Photo 4). I started by cutting a piece of bright pink felt out in the shape of an elephant.
To prepare my zippers I removed all hardware and then cut the zipper tape right back to the teeth and sealed the remainder of the zipper with a candle. All of the tutorials I looked at used hot glue guns to hold the zippers in place but my glue gun wasn't delicate enough so I resorted to hand stitching over the zipper teeth whilst shaping the zip around the outside of my felt elephant. I had planned to just do one row of zipper teeth around the outside of the felt with a spiral for the ear and tail, but when it was done it looked a bit....incomplete..... so I kept going spiraling inward using different colour zipper teeth whenever I ran out. I added a sequin for an eye and melted all my ends in and in the end I really like the way he turned out. He's a bit amateurish - you can see all my stitches as I didn't have matching threads but he's a cute first attempt. I'd like to try this technique again some day.
So I have to say I absolutely love this dress. I assumed that I'd only ever wear it all zippers open but I actually like the zipped up look almost as much as I like it flared. The dress is super comfy thanks to the fleece material and I haven't wanted to take it off since I finished it which is saying something. Now for the weather to warm up just enough for me to wear it without freezing to death.
I'll leave you with a few gratuitous twirling shots - you try wearing this dress and not giving it a twirl!
Now....lets go back to that jumpsuit idea.......
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