Friday 29 November 2013

Strike! The Spoolettes Hit the Lanes

You may have spotted in a few other posts around the internet that a rather special group has started here in London - the Spoolettes! (Read about it here, or look at the Facebook page here) No real agenda, other than having fun and finding reasons to get together and wear special outfits we've made. 

And for our first big night out, we hit Bloomsbury Lanes for bowling, pizza, burgers, karaoke, and fabulous home made outfits!

Here's some highlights:

Kathryn of Yes, I like that in her shirt from outer space!

Emmie, Janene, and Jo in more gorgeous creations
Katrhyn, Clare (who organised the whole shebang), and me
Sally, the best bowler of the night, and just look at that embroidery
Rehanon, bringing extra sass!
Fiona, looking extra cute!
Who's the best dressed person in this picture? The Spoolette, of course!
Alison's perfect bowling stance!


And as usual, I was having too much of a good time to actually take any photos of my own outfit. I decided to go for a bowling-style dress, based on this pattern:



I used some red cotton drill from Dalston Mill, combined with some scraps of black poly and a few adjustments to the pattern to make this:





The main change I made was to the back, where I added a yoke and some pleat inserts, as well as some little tabs and gathers to pull in the waist a bit:



As well as this, I added black flaps to the pockets:



The most time consuming part was the back embroidery:



I drew the logo freehand onto my trusty roll of baking parchment (it took many attempts to get just right), then pinned that to the back of dress and embroidered through it:



Not being an expert on embroidery, I just made it up as I went along, I think the stitch I used is called a split stitch. Whatever it is, it worked! Here's some details:


That's meant to be a bobbin...
... and that's a needle
I also put my name on the front:



I'll leave you with a photo of Clare's vegetarian burger and her alcoholic shake, which was a delicious revelation:




See you soon!

5 comments:

  1. You knocked it out of the park with this dress and all it's lovely details lady! I LOVE those little pleats in the back

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    1. Thank you! It was such a fab night - I'm racking my brain trying to think of more excuses to get together! So far from I've only come up with stock car racing in Wimbledon, but I don't think it really has an outfit that goes with it.

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  2. THe dress is fantastic, and your embroidery is just perfect! I'm so jealous and wish I lived over in London. I saw some of y'alls pics on Instagram, and it looked like you were having a ball!

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  3. Gosh I wish I lived in London, too! I was born in Wimbledon but that's no help now is it!

    You all look knockout! It looks as though you had a great time.

    Nicole, I'm so impressed by your embroidery. It's beautiful and must have taken ages.

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  4. I love that embroidered back so much!

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