Honest Frock Workshop

As you may know, two years ago I was lucky enough to get the last place on a crafty day with Dottie Angel and Ted & Agnes at the Hope and Elvis studio in Worksop.  If you haven't read all about it yet, you can do so here.

Well, ever since, I've been asking, pleading, begging Rachelle to run a dress making workshop, and this weekend it happened! (Of course it has nothing to do with my constant hounding of her at all, but I have been wanting to do this for the longest of times)!

Anyways, I managed to get a place on the Honest Frock workshop on Sunday, alongside my crafty partner in crime Lottie, who I also met that first time up Nottingham way....and, squeal, my glamorous bloggy pal Mrs Bertimus sneakily revealed, just before the event, that she was going up too!

So....Sunday arrived and off Lottie and I went, a fraction later than planned as Lottie got lost on her way to me (but that's another story) and we arrived with 15 minutes to go before the actual event began.

Rachelle is as gorgeous as ever (though there is much less of her after her juicing experience) and it was great to see Louise and Miss Debs there too.  Rachelle explained what we needed to do and off we went.  There were lots of moments to stop in between too so that we knew what to do every step of the way and no one went wrong at all.

Look at that concentration!

The heat of the day did take it toll though and by the end of the afternoon we were all flagging a bit, in fact I think only 2 or 3 dresses were actually completed there and then but we were all confident enough to take them home to complete them.

Lottie rocking her denim frock

Mrs B's granny chic number

In my head before the event, I had a Merchant & Mills style dress in mind, and Rachelle (who didn't know this) suggested I buy linen to bring up - which is what I was thinking too!  I went to Abakhan and got three different colours for a mere £24 so I can make three dresses for £8 which is pretty good I think!  I couldn't decide which colour to make my first dress in so Lottie decided the beige as that was her least favourite out of the grey and navy to use!

I will admit, choosing a fabric that has no clear right and wrong side is a bit of a pain but with help from everyone concerned, I made the dress with no errors at all.

All that needed to be done afterwards was to hem the neckline, sleeves and bottom, so as yesterday was the first day of the school holidays I got to work.  I was going to do an invisible hem on the neck line but I wasn't happy with how it was looking, so I abandoned that idea!  Annoyingly, my fabric, after cutting it out, managed to have a very small hole in it near the right shoulder which I was going to patch - and then I remembered that my adorable bloggy pal Pixie sent me a beautiful flower broach that she made, so I fixed it on and my dress is now even nicer than before!

I do have arms, honest!

Photo bombed by the 5 year old!

Ta-dah!

The finishing touch

I'm all set to do two more now (when I have some mummy-free time).  I think the next one might have shorter sleeves, or maybe do a sleeveless one too - the opportunities are endless!

Oh, and there was a fabric sale on too, so I grabbed this fab barkcloth from Miss Debs - cushions for Agatha van I think!

I can't wait to go back again!

G x