A Festive Journee - McCalls 8110

As Christmas 2020 was an absolute bust I wanted to sew something frivolous and 'extra' this year, whether I was attending any parties or not. (At the time of writing this and the looks of the news the answer is probably not). Edit - we made it out very briefly.  Nevertheless...

 

 

In the picture above I actually had my top on inside out!! That was before the wine. Colours work better when you dress yourself right...

It all started with this beautiful constellation embroidered tulle from Sister Mintaka, which I had hoarded like a total magpie. (There is no way of showing how lovely this is in real life especially in the permanent twilight of the UK).

I toyed with the idea of a shirt dress with a slip underneath but figured that plackets and collars would be too tricky to cope with in this sheer fabric. So looked for something a bit more simple in construction.

Enter Journee! Otherwise known as McCalls 8110. 

The pattern does call for stretch tulle or stretch lace, and this isn't. However as the Big 4 have 'ease for days' I figured it may be ok. But I was a good gal and made a toile just in case. (I did NOT want to chop my lovely fabric without knowing it would fit!).

First attempt was with this lovely red and gold lace gifted by a friend. Bizarrely it fit. I went for a Size 22 (!).

After that I decided to just go for it and imagined this lovely long sparkly dress - only to discover that I had only bought and hoarded 1m of the fabric. Doh. One tier and tunic length it is. 

I'm still happy I managed to get an actual garment out of 1m though! All seams were french-seamed to enclose raw edges and give a better finish. The neckline and keyhole opening at the back are finished with satin bias binding - which to my surprise went on pretty well and did not clog up my sewing machine. A little hook and eye clasp keeps it closed at the nape. I did not hem this at all as the fabric doesn't need it and the raw edge looked quite pretty to me. 

Just to make matters a little more jazzy, I decided that anything going under this tunic also needed some sparkle and so a black velvet glitter disco suit was created.

Apostrophe Pattern leggings were whipped up in this gorgeous glittery stretch (also stashed) from Sew Anonymous. I figured a plain vest just wouldn't cut it so I also managed to squeeze a small Greenstyle cami out of the leftovers. It is only by luck that I managed a crop cami top out of the fabric otherwise it would have been longer! Excuse the bod out - for sewing demo purposes only!

I like how it sparkles under the constellation tulle like stars. Again ridiculously difficult to photograph glitter.

Whilst I love the fabrics in the outfit, for some reason I just don't love the outfit itself as much as I wanted to. I think it just misses what I had envisioned, however it was a very fun make and definitely fantastic to wear something completely original!

Any bright ideas about how to style this tunic are gratefully received...

This will no doubt be the last post before the ol' Christmas holidays therefore wishing you all seasons greetings whatever you may or may not be celebrating! x

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