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Black and White Polka-Dot or Red Jersey Reversible Dress

reversible viscose and elastane dress

Maddison modelling reversible black and white polka dot dress (red on reverse) that Bess designed for her final degree collection.

Fabrics and Notions:
Red viscose elastane jersey
Black and white polka dot print viscose elastane jersey
Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
Stay tape

Pattern: Bess’s own

reversible viscose and elastane dress
reversible viscose and elastane dress
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Chevron Knit Dress

Missoni knit A-line dress

Lulu wearing Italian Designer chevron knit dress

Fabrics and Notions:
Cotton and mixed fibres Italian Designer chevron knit
Lycra binding
Bias binding
Stay tape

The selvedge on these knits are often usable as an edging, they may need a bit of tidying up as there is often threads that come loose, but  look good when the time is spent.

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White Grosgrain, Red Sateen and Black Sequin Zippy Dress

white grosgrain zippy panelled dress with sequinned yoke and red sateen inserts

Bess wearing her posh white grosgrain and sequinned zippy dress, with red cotton sateen inserts.

Bess has a bit of an obsession with zips

Fabrics and Notions:
White cotton and acetate grosgrain
Black sequinned jersey
Red cotton and poly stretch sateen
Red continuous zipping
Red piping
Red bias binding (cut from sateen)
Iron-on reinforced stabilising tape
Iron on stabilising tape
Black fold-over grosgrain binding (hem)

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Tweed Double Cloth Zip Panelled Pinafore Dress

wool tweed double cloth zippy dress

Bess in her prototype tweed dress she made for her final collection with six zips opening up the panels (the zips have extra pullers so can be undone in a multitude of ways for different silhouettes).

Fabrics and Notions:
Laurent Garigue double sided wool tweed in charcoal and ivory
Big spot poly satin
Black continuous zipping with extra pullers
Red grosgrain ribbon
Black fold-over grosgrain binding
Self made wide bias binding
Iron-on reinforced stay tape
Iron-on stay tape

Pattern: Bess’s own (but is a pretty basic panelled shift)

tweed double cloth zippy dress
tweed double cloth zippy dress
wool tweed double cloth continuous zipping dress
wool tweed double cloth continuous zipping dress
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Sequin Dress

sequin and organic cotton mini dress

Bess wearing her sequinned tulle and organic cotton jersey dress (made in one hour!)

Fabrics and Notions
Silver/Black penny sequinned tulle #1926
Black organic cotton jersey #2916
Stay tape

Bess made sleeves and lined her sequin dress in cotton jersey because she is fairly intolerant when it comes to suffering for fashion (and sequins are hot and scratchy).

This dress would have taken much less than an hour had she not taken the time to cut away the sequins along the seams (which makes sewing easier, reduces the risk of a sequin jabbing her in the thigh, and the seams lie nice and flat. It was unnecessary to sew any back on.
Due to the tulle backing the sequins are sewn on to no hemming was required (result!).

 

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Quilted Hooded Jacket with Worsted Wool and Jersey Draped Skirt

quilted jersey jacket and jersey draped skirt

Becky modelling Lucinda’s quilted cotton hooded jacket  with laser cut leaf embellishments, and worsted wool shaped yoke with jersey draped skirt (made using the Julian Roberts sub-cutting method)

Fabrics and Notions:
Skirt:
Marble print viscose and elastane jersey
Chocolate brown English worsted wool
Red viscose and elastane jersey
Invisible zip

Jacket:
Dyed calico
Laser cut leaves from ultrasuade, jersey and calico
Blue viscose (lining)
Wadding
Cotton bias binding

T-shirt:
Viscose elastane jersey

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Red Reversible Jersey Dress

reversible jersey dress with scoop neck and cap sleeves

Bess made this reversible jersey dress as a dummy run for her final collection. The plain side in a linen viscose jersey, and the spotty side is viscose elastane. The pattern was designed on the stand.

Fabrics and Notions:
Linen Viscose jersey
Viscose elastane polka dot print jersey
Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
Stay tape

 

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Green Spotty Dress and Raincoat

spotty cotton dress and raincoat

Clair wearing Off-white raincoat with Kaffe Fassett Green spotty panelled dress.
Fabrics and Notions (raincoat):
Proofed cotton
Kaffe Fassett spotty printed cotton (lining)
Double cover buttons
Piping cord with self-made bias binding
Viscose iron-on interfacing.
Pattern: McCall’s 5525

Fabrics and Notions (dress)
Green Kaffe Fassett spotty printed cotton
Green Venezia lining
Invisible zip
Piping cord and bias binding
Knitted medium weight iron- on interfacing

Clair, being the queen of matchy-matchy fashion excelled herself here with this summer-weight all-weather ensemble. Proofed fabrics will need a sharp, fine needle, such as ‘super-stitch’ or those intended for use on microfibre

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Issey Miyake Coat

aubergine wool coating issey miyake coat

Poppy returning to the shop in her wonderful Issey Miyake designed alpaca wool tweed coat.

Fabrics and Notions:
Alpaca wool tweed
Pattern: Vogue (Issey Miyake)

This pattern has been going for years, it is cut in classic Issey fashion in that you don’t know what on earth is going on until it is all put together. It’s like witchcraft. Remember when choosing a coat like this that takes so much fabric (about four and a half metres, with hardly any wastage) to pick something light- unless you want to build up muscles!