Red Hot and Chilli

It's always good when you can have a finale for one of your makes and my finale for my latest make was a trip to a vintage festival in the form of Twinwood for August Bank Holiday.

Twinwood Festival is the UK's largest vintage festival of the year and is fantastic fun if you love all things vintage with lots of music, dancing, vintage goodies to buy and pop up tea shops.  A gallery of
images from the day can be seen here.

So back to the dress,  The chilli pepper fabric was an irresistible find in Fabricland and I knew it would be just perfect for the day.  I did have to ponder for a while on what design the dress would be and had originally planned to wear a full skirted monochrome dress but it got consigned to the UFOs when it needed tweaking - that and the chilli pepper fabric got me hyperventilating with its retroness!

I eventually decided on a Patrones (issue 269), number 17, a pattern by Guess because I felt it had a forties feel and I just loved the stand collar and cap sleeves.  I completely lined the dress and added some gathers at the bodice to give a bit of detail at the bust (and give me a bit of shape!)

I'd originally planned this one as  a 40s wiggle dress but as the fabric was only 110 cm width the dress came up a bit snug on the hips so to add in a bit of spaciousness I unpicked the back seam and inserted a godet, giving a bit of a back flare.  Job done and super comfy to walk in. 

The inserted godet in all it's glory.

As well as saving the look of the back seam and stand collar I opted for a side zip - also partly because I didn't have a long zipper and by adding it in at the side it opened up the waist for ease of actually getting into the dress.

Unusually for a bank holiday the sun shone all over Twinwood so vintage merrymakers were able to enjoy all the festival had to offer, including lots of lovely classic cars.

Just in case of a cool breeze I decided on a fake fur wrap which I made from 80 cm of super soft fake fur with a cream lining, rounded at the ends and quickly wizzed up on my trusty old machine.  If you fancy the diva look there are lots of fake fur stole tutorials all over the internet including this good one from Chic Steals

The wrap took a break when the sun shone brightly.

Back view of the collar and close up of the peppers

Finally a pic of the main stage - lots of opportunities for dance divas with big band sounds.

Cost:  1.5m of chilli pepper fabric at £3.99 per metre plus 1.5 m lining at £2.00 per metre plus zip

Ease factor:  generally straightforward with the lining attaching to the sleeves being the most complex part,

I'm already collating ideas for my Twinwood dress for next year - let's hope the sun shines again.  I'd love to see any garments you sewers have made for a festival.

Happy sewing

Linda x