Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Season 19 Week 3: Botanical Beauty

It time for the designers to wow us with their Botanical Beauty creations.


Puzzle Patterns - Garden State

puzzle patterns

Victoria is the Garden State of Australia so the theme this week literally hit home for me.  One of my favourite things about Australia is the colourful flora and fauna, I just love all the wild and wonderful flowers you see all around.  I'd had my eye on this vibrant Rayon and when I went back to the fabric store I snatched it up and I knew It would be perfect to help me portray this.

puzzle patterns

I focused on one outfit this week for a couple reasons, but mostly because this competition for me has been done with a newborn strapped to me in a baby wrap.  Hubby went back to work this week and so my photoshoot and my creating was done in between feeding and rewrapping our newest little love, chasing a toddler, doctors appointments and all the school and kinder drop-offs with the trio of littles in tow!  I had to really focus my design on something specific I was going to love and that would portray this weeks theme.

puzzle patterns

For my design I drafted a pair of wide legged pants and a peplum that would drape nicely with the beautiful Rayon.  The flow of the peplum reminded me of a flower and gave the outfit that extra spin for when Lottie was dancing, skipping or twirling.   Luckily, as I was shopping the Little Lizard King sale this past week I happened up on the Malibu dress and it had the exact neckline I had sketched for this design.  Yay! I ended up using the bodice of the Malibu and modified it a bit for fit and then took off the back waistline elastic casing and included two bow ties in the back.
Then - as we all know - accessories are everything, so I created a felt flower headband with coordinating felt and then whipped up a couple extras for my flat lay because I have so much fun making them!
I had a great time this week and I've really enjoyed being part of the Aussie leg of this tour with so many talented and lovely designers.  If you want to see more pics of my creations I'll be posting them and discussing the process in more detail over on my Instagram and Blog.

puzzle patterns


Idle Sunshine - Bohemian Beauty





It's Week 3 of Project Run & Play and I'm thrilled to be here sharing my makes!  The theme this week is Botanical Beauty and I took the opportunity to make an outfit that has been stuck in my head for a long time!  I'm so proud of this set, it's floaty and romantic and the botanical print is just gorgeous.  I used a gorgeous mauve floral rayon fabric for this set, and then got a little crafty with the glue gun and made a flower crown to match!






I created this cropped wrap top with the Mori Dress Pattern by Elegance & Elephants as a starting point. I redrafted every single pattern piece to get the look I wanted.  I raised the front neck line, widened the front and back centre panels and changed the angle that the flounces set into, I lengthened the bodice, cut the full back into angled separates, created huge flounces and a wrap waist band!  I think the only thing I left alone was the shoulder angle and armscye!  I did a double fold narrow hem on the flounces and created a really long waistband to tie around the body.  I am so happy with how this turned out and that being a wrap top, it will fit my girl for some time.  She started talking Year 6 Graduation outfit, swishing around in this set, so that made me happy that she loved it too!






The skirt started with a flat front, elastic back waistband.  I cut 2 extra wide skirt panels and cut the ruffled tier double the width of the skirt.  I measured my daughter's waist to the ground to calculate the length of the finished skirt, which I then used to work out the length of both the panel and ruffle.  I hand cut the high low front panel, using a curved ruler as a guide, to get the finished height I had calculated for the front.  She loved twirling around in the breeze up on the cliffs in this beautiful skirt.

 I really wanted this outfit to be a show stopper, so I made sure the skirt had the same generous feel as the flounces of the wrap top.  We took our photoshoot out to the boardwalk above Fingal Bay in Port Stephens.  This is one of our family's favourite spots to visit for a stroll.  I knew the stunning combination of the greenery and the ocean would be the perfect backdrop for this botanical outfit and wouldn't compete with the colours of the fabric.  For more pictures and info you can visit the Idle Sunshine blog here.






Tadah Patterns - Banksia in Bloom

Ahhhh florals, how I love them and I LOVE Aussie florals the most.  We live in a leafy little suburb near the ocean called Banksia, named after Joseph Banks, a botanist on the First Fleet who in turn had a genus named after him - Banksia.  We took a stroll down to our local park to take photos in front of the native trees and shrubs.


Ailish and I talked about her outfit for a week or so and she said she wanted to swish like a flower in the wind... not dramatic, at all..... I used the one piece version of a soon-to-be-released Tadah pattern and borrowed the flouncy sleeves from our Vetur Dress pattern.  I used a beautiful flowy pointelle knit from Spotlight and lined it fully.  I paired it with our Tulip Skirt pattern in this beautiful Waratah rayon from Sew Unique Fabrics and she spent a lot of time shaking her booty and twirling while yelling "I'm a flowerrrrrrr mummmmm" (total mum win!)  I finished them off with some super cute little flower buttons I found in my stash.  I got the gorgeous native flowers from my very talented friend Kate from Baby Bowtique and added in a couple of flowers my girls picked themselves from local trees.


I wasn't quite convinced that Ashlyn's idea for her outfit for this week would be very wearable so we compromised, she's 4 so reality doesn't factor into her ideas!  She wanted "a top with no straps and huge boofy flower bigger than my head on my shoulder!"  It took some keen negotiation on my part but we settled for a beautiful, drapey flounce and a one shouldered top.  I started with our Tea Party Dress bodice to get the armholes correct.  I sized down as it’s a woven pattern, re-drafted the neck to be off-the-shoulder, extended the bodice, added some waist shaping and the Vetur flounce.  I used this beautiful Aussie floral double brushed poly from The Material Girl Australia to give the flounce that beautiful drape.  For the shorts, I used our Peg Shorts to get the crotch curve correct and then drafted a high waisted, slim fit dress shorty short with a side zip.  I used this beautiful linen from Dizzy Daisy Fabrics.


If you'd like to see some more photos of the styles I created, or if you'd like to read about my fabric mishap with my original skirt for Ailish, you can head to our blog and we will also be sharing some extras on our Insta and Facebook pages.


Ellie's Handmade - Butterfly Garden


Our theme for week 3, Botanical Beauty, had me dreaming up whimsical, floral inspired dresses, something I could imagine that little girls would just love to wear! I decided to create two dresses and a headpiece this week, for Ellie, and her very best friend, Lily.  They are both such girly, sweet little ladies, constantly lost in the world of butterflies, fairies, flowers and unicorns... so of course I had to work some of those things into this weeks creations.


I've always loved working with tulle, and decided, it was now or never - I was going to sew a flower and butterfly filled skirt.  I put some thought into how it would be possible to make this dress really wearable, as the flowers and butterflies definitely can't be washed.  So I designed it so that the portion of the dress with the flowers and butterflies is actually a skirt with a waistband, making it completely removable.  The dress can be worn as a simple pink tulle dress, or with the butterfly skirt over the top, sitting beautifully as though it is ''attached'' to the bodice.  It even sits beautifully over a leotard worn as a midi skirt!  Every flower and butterfly was hand stitched on, I think in the end I sewed around 85 flowers on, alternating colours and sizes.  I drafted this dress pattern to have a neckline centred at the base of the neck, with straps that crossed over, and looped through the sides, creating a feature open back.  The bodice and waistband are linen, and the tulle skirt was also lined with a satin with all the seams enclosed.


For Miss Lily, I used a silk georgette fabric I had been hoarding for some time.  I drafted to her dress to have a centre bib, with side panels and elastic back.  After sewing up my test bodice, I decided it needed a little something extra and added in some ruffles between the bib and side panels.  Since the girls love to match in lots of ways - I decided to create a similar back, that crossed over and tied in a bow.  For the skirt, I cut a slightly gathered circle skirt - the twirl factor is fantastic!  I also made Lily a headpiece using some of the left over flowers and butterflies, which the girls promptly swapped every 5 minutes while we were taking pics.  If you would like to see more pics from this weeks entry, please head over to my blog HERE. xo Tash.
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If you're inspired to link up your Botanical Beauty creations, you can do so right here.

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5 comments :

  1. Congratulations to all the ladies who made so beautiful - and inspiring to the rest of us - creations! Thank you very much.

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  2. Amazing work ladies!! All outfits are simply stunning!!

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  3. Stunning dresses. I love that the butterfly and floral skirt can be worn separately

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