Tag Archives: belladone

Distract with a bow

Blue belladonna

Blue belladonna

Blue belladonna

Blue belladonna

Blue belladonnadress: self-made // shoes: Swedish Hasbeens // bow: F21

The second I saw this fabric I knew it was going to be a Belladone. Even if there wasn’t enough I planned on making a peplum top version. Luckily with some strategic fabric cutting, there was! I snagged this from Tall Sarah’s pre-move stash clearing so I have no idea what it is but it feels cottony and has some texture to it.

There’s a secret to the bow. What happened was that Tall Sarah gave me this fabric on Wednesday, and I decided that I just HAD to make the dress in time to wear to her going away dinner on Saturday. Except that I made this decision at about 9am Saturday, which was quite inconvenient and left me about four hours to do it. Somehow I made it happen but it meant that I didn’t have time to run out and find the right kind of zipper (also laziness) so I had to make do with a regular zip, which looked terrible. My solution was to add a bow, which distracts you from the horribleness of the zipper. I’m also redoing the hem. It needs to be trimmed down and I think I’m going to try out my blindhem foot on this one!

In other news, I just watched the entirety of the Great British Sewing Bee and I CANNOT stop noticing how the pattern is crooked down the front. Although considering it didn’t even occur to me to make it straight I’m surprised I even ended up with an oval in the middle! Yikes.

Deadly nightshade

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone

Belladone
dress: self-made // shoes: Seychelles // headband: J.Crew

Today I went outfit-photographing with the lovely ladies of Katy & Laney and it was a hysterically good time. I climbed in a giant metal wheel in heels, but I’ll save that for the next post. I usually end up ninja-ing my way up to the roof and hoping no one will notice my over-dressed, over-made-up self making faces at a tripod and frantically pulling my dress down when it gets gusty, so it was nice having someone (or a bunch of also super dressed up someones!) behind the camera. Thanks guys!

(It was also pretty hilarious having people to interact with during the photo-taking, especially when it resulted in gems like this.)
Belladone
I don’t remember what was happening, except that Katy said something funny and I almost fell.

This dress was actually my first Belladone, which I made months and months ago. It was snowing and I remember walking home from the fabric shop clutching it excitedly but also kind of questioning my choice of a cut-out dress in the middle of winter.

Hint: Belladone is always a good choice. Always.

So yeah, I love this pattern to bits. It required literally zero adjustment, other than the little changes I make with nearly all patterns I use* (lower the neckline, shorten the hem, usually I add an inch or so to the torso but I can’t remember if I did that here.)

I can never decide if I love this dress, hate it, or am just amazed that it fits like a glove without any major adjustments to the pattern. For some ridiculous reason I decided to buy this awful gabardine (probably because it was like $2/yd) and then decided it would be a good idea to use it for this dress. I love the color, but the fabric itself is just utter crap. It’s too stiff, doesn’t press properly, and unravels like there’s no tomorrow. I made a second one out of a floral cotton that I like better, but it’s really a summery dress and I need to make another darker solid one to wear in the cooler months. The pockets are cute though! I lined them with some pink and white floral cotton I had lying around.

But yay! I <3 Deer and Doe.

*Let’s be honest, it’s a slight slutification. Which we found quite hilarious when we realized what we were taking photos in front of. Hee hee

school

 

The backless Belladone

Backless Belladone

Backless Belladone

Backless Belladone

Backless Belladone

Backless Belladonedress: self-made, pattern here // shoes: Minnetonka // glasses: Bonlook

I had this dress in mind when I first bought the Belladone pattern but I never had the right fabric for it. When I was home recently, I went to my favorite discount fabric shop and found this gorgeously simple floral rayon challis (I think?) and I knew it had to come home with me and become this dress.

I’m *mostly* happy with how it turned out, but there are definitely some things I would tweak next time I make one.

I made the bodice according to the pattern, except the two bottom back pieces, which I basically slashed off a bunch of. I wanted the lovely diagonal lines meeting toward the middle, but I wanted this to be an easy dress to slip on so I opted for an elastic waistband just in the very back. This meant the bottom back pieces had to meet the waistband a little farther out than I had originally planned. For the skirt, I just drafted a circle skirt with a little extra circumference than the actual waist in order to accommodate the gathering.

I think that next time I’m going to include the original waistband in the back only, and then have the skirt come out of there. It’ll be easy to attach some sort of short back zipper closure (or buttons!) and I can have the bottom back pieces meet in the middle and not gape so much at the sides.

Anyway, this dress is super comfy and super easy to throw on. Plus, backless dresses are just tons of fun to wear!

In other news, I just realized my post title sounds like a weird and possibly skanky murder mystery.

Yellow Belladone

Yellow floral belladone

Yellow floral belladone

Yellow floral belladone
So a few months ago I decided to step outside my comfort zone of colors and buy this lovely yellow fabric. And then I had no idea what to do with it.

And then I bought Deer and Doe‘s Belladone pattern and decided it would be adorable in this print with a pleated skirt.

I love how it turned out, I’m just not 100% sure the color suits me. But yay for branching out!

Yellow Belladone

Yellow floral belladone

Yellow floral belladone

Yellow floral belladone
So a few months ago I decided to step outside my comfort zone of colors and buy this lovely yellow fabric. And then I had no idea what to do with it.

And then I bought Deer and Doe‘s Belladone pattern and decided it would be adorable in this print with a pleated skirt.

I love how it turned out, I’m just not 100% sure the color suits me. But yay for branching out!