(but there is a dress with bare-chested sheilas instead…
and I think Dolly Clackett would approve of that!)
I really did want to sew a SewDollyClackett dress. I’d love to tell you I have a great excuse. In all honesty, I am the busiest and most exhausted I’ve been in some time… but I always sew through those dark patches…
I love Roisin. I love her style. I love her sass. She’s an awesome sheila. She knocks out dresses like nobody’s business. She can be funny, blunt, honest, thoughtful… and always beautiful.
And you know what I love most about her? She’s Roisin – without apology. She sews exactly what she likes. She’s got crazy fabulous shoes, owns enough divinely feminine dresses to clothe a small nation’s Olympic team and has her very own quirky style. She’s intelligent, quick witted and sometimes soft & vunerable. And I bet that’s why Nic loves her so and wants to spend the rest of his life with her – because she is Roisin. There’s no one else quite like her.
And that’s why anyone loves us – because we are unique souls.
I did try to make a Dolly Clackett dress. Oh lord I did try. I sewed a great dress… the stripe matching was fierce and the print choice was perfect… and then the back gaped. Ever so slightly but I hated that.
SewNotDollyClackett – this is a Burda pattern (sorry can’t remember and I’m too tired to look it up)
So I took off the bodice. Unpleated the pleated skirt. Added a Cambie bodice… added a gathered skirt… and I still haven’t hemmed it… and I don’t know if I will…. because I’m not Roisin. And I felt bad about that for ages – because the whole point of the sewalong was to sew something in her style… but the inner SewBusyLizzy beast was roaring…
I tweeted rather cheekily if I could sew something else (ie not a SewDollyClackett style) – and Roisin said yes :-) (another reason why I love her so). I also think myself blessed enough with fabrics and patterns from other bloggers, designers and stores that I didn’t want to win any prize. However I did want to sew a dress for Roisin. I heaved a sigh of relief and decided to salute Dolly Clackett in SewBusyLizzy style.
Fortunately there was a hoard of fabulous, clever stitchers around the world that truly got into the spirit of SewDollyClackett – and paid her tribute in amazing style. Check them out! And congratulates to Sarah of Rhinestones & Telephones who organised this global sewing salute.
If I was going to be a wedding crasher, what better with a classical print featuring semi-nude ladies, knit fabric, self-drafted/frankenpatterned dress?
I’ve made this four times now… including a ‘lounge about at home animal print one’ which I knocked up because I had to re-drafted the back pattern piece… because it is MIA in the sewing room. It’s a very hacked belnd of the infamous Vogue 1250 and Maria Denmark’s day to night dress – I also chiselled out the sides and shorted the midriff – it’s a perfect fit. It takes 40 minutes to make from scissors to hemming.
Still SewNotDollyClackett (wondering about the weird pose? I’m taking my sunnies off – because I always seem to have them on…)
The print is not cute quirky ‘Dolly Clackett’, instead there are a stack of classical ladies with bared chests so I figure it’s a nuded-up classical version of a Dolly Clackett novelty print…
Gallery Fabric from Tessuti Melbourne
I first saw this fabric on the Tessuti online store. Then I saw it in person at the Sydney March meet-up… and everyone looked at me like I had three heads and no brains in any of them. When I got home I realised that whilst I may not have any brains, my little dark heart wanted those nude ladies in my life. Fortunately it was still available in the Melbourne store! I chose this pattern as there are very few seams to break up this extraordinary and very busy print!
Wedding Crasher alert – and she’s got no shoes on!
And in case you are struggling to see the ‘ladies’ – here they are…
there’s a set of knockers on my stomach…
another set on my hip…
and another on my back…
My nine-year-old daughter has deemed this dress ‘very inappropriate’ – which of course makes me love it more (I’m guessing it’s a concern when a pre-tween daughter starts tut-tutting at her mother’s wardrobe). I’ve even worn it to work :-) I work in a cultural centre… why not?
I love this picture – not because it’s a great one of me – but that ‘window’ in the print looks like a peephole into my soul… or the ocean behind.. or just my belly button LOL. With a print like this there are always going to be placement issues. My major concern was to get as many naked ladies as possible onto the dress LMAO
I wore this to High Tea (I’m sitting at the front like Lady Muck) when I popped up and stayed with Busy Lizzie in Brizzy in March (who a delightful host and felt like a long-lost sister – and her husband Josh put up with a million and one questions about beef-jerky making – awesome people).
I’m just me. And Roisin is gloriously Roisin… and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Love you madly Roisin – and I’m sending you every best wish for a fantastic, interesting, slightly crazy and very happy future with your lovely Nic. Mwah.
And my posing super coach has some wedding photo tips for you…
She’s happy to travel if you need wedding photography advice… I will of course need to accompany her as she’s a minor (with a major personality)
although if you want to travel for your wedding photos – we have plenty of scenery on offer…
Shelly Beach, Port Macquarie – pretty even when it’s overcast
oh… and the giveaway?
I had a second blog birthday last month – and typically of me – I missed it.
So comment away – and send your wedding wishes to the perfectly one-of-a-kind Dolly Clackett (and Nick of course!)… because we wouldn’t have her any other way…
I’ll send the winner a package of something… not sure what yet… but things that make me smile (and some sewing things!) and might make you smile too – because what else is there?
And what two year celebration post would be complete without me typically barefoot, on the beach with sunnies on?
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Oscar Wilde
