When I made the flamingo dress for my friend’s newborn baby, I really wanted one in my size but only had enough of the fabric left for the lining, which I thought could be a bit more of a grown up version anyway.
For the main fabric, I used Rifle Paper Co’s Cheshire Cat striped fabric. This one is a mid weight cotton so it has a really nice structure but it’s still light enough for the summer.
I used the flora pattern from By Hand London, one of my favourites. This time though I wanted to add some more detail to the shoulders, so I self drafted some ruched shoulder straps. I did a quick search to see if anyone had attempted this before with the Flora and saw Shauni’s on her blog The Magnificent Thread which I loved so I drafted some similar.
I’m really pleased how they turned out and I can definitely imagine this style working well in a lot of fabrics.
I spent a lot of time pattern matching the zip and I’m glad I did since it turned out quite well! I attached the zip on one side then marked out each stripe on the other side of the zip before attaching to the other side.
For the skirt, I was really in two minds about horizontal or vertical stripes; I was worried about vertical ones in case it looked too Beetlejuice but I actually like the contrast and it works well with the length.
I normally make my dresses quite long (well I’m quite short) and then cut to length after attaching the skirt however the selvedge on Rifle fabrics is so lovely that I cut it to length first so for the hem, I could just turn it up and sew a single line of stitching.
This dress definitely feels a bit special when you wear it; something to do with the secret flamingos probably.
😍😍😍. This is absolutely beautiful! I love your design and fabric choices. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t love a flamingo lining!
😍😍😍. This is absolutely beautiful! I love your design and fabric choices. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t love a secret flamingo lining?
Ah-ma-zing dress! I love everything Rifle Paper Co and this is just the cutest combo!
I love this!! What skirt did you use with the flora bodice?
Thank you! I used the skirt from the Kim dress which is just a gathered skirt
Hi Kate, I was wondering how you got the vertical lines on your skirt. Did you have to cut segments?
Hi Mia. I did a gathered skirt so it was just a long piece of fabric cut in a rectangle and gathered at the top. I cut it in 3 parts – 1 for the front and 2 for the back (to allow for the zip). The pattern I used for the skirt was the Kim dress by By Hand London, hope that helps! Kate 🙂
Great thank you. I saw above that you had used the Kim skirt but I wasn’t sure if you had made some amendments. It’s lovely by the way 🙂 xx
Love the special lining!