When Poppy met Lane…This outfit was not without dramas but is my proudest make to date I think.
I’ve been learning to sewing for around a year, and when our friends announced they were getting married, I wanted to make an outfit. However, I don’t wear a lot of dresses and am not experienced enough with the light floaty fabrics associated with wedding guest outfits, so I worried I wouldn’t be able to make something smart enough.
Around this time I bought a ready to wear jumpsuit which I decided would suit the occasion with a jacket I already own. However, it wasn’t long, before the little voices in my head said “I wonder if I could copy that”!! Yep, we’ve all been there! So, I came up with a plan to use the bodice of the @cinnamondaisystudio Poppy dress and then somehow attached it to the @hisydgraham Lane pants, which had made and loved. I even found some fabric.
I made a toile of the poppy bodice in calico and shirred the back panel (also a completely new process to me). Emma’s instructions were brilliant and, with a few small tweaks, I had my most fitted garment yet and I thought it had real potential. It was tight getting it down over my hips but, I reckoned with a few more width adjustments to the shirring, I was ready to make a wearable toile in an inexpensive viscose.
And that’s where it all went wrong. My inexperience meant I pre-cut the fabric for the shirred panel and I didn’t realise that viscose would scrunch up much, much more than calico. Yet again, the top was way too small to get over my hips to be able to go to the loo. At this point I gave up. It was causing me too much stress as the wedding was getting much closer. I would wear the original RTW jumpsuit.
With a week and a half to the wedding, I decided to make the lane pants out of the fabric I had bought so at least they could be enjoyed over the summer. They worked out perfectly but, looking at the pile of fabric scraps, the little voices returned… why not make a faux jumpsuit co-ord set which would eliminate the problematic loo issue.
And so, this outfit was born. I didn’t have time to make any more toiles so I winged it, pinning and trying on as I went. I hacked the Poppy bodice a little to raise the upper bust section and then created a pared back peplum piece to create a slimmer silhouette. It worked. My fabric piece was 2.85m and I was super-impressed to get both items out. I even had enough for a matching @sewoveritlondon bow bag.
I love it, and in reality it will probably get much more wear as separates than a jumpsuit anyway! I would have liked to wear my jacket as I think it finished to look nicely but 32 degree temperatures meant that wasn’t an option. The outfit was as cool as it could have been when all around was melting! ❤️🫠
