Bartacks and Singletrack: Frocktails 2024

Melbourne Frocktails is always such a blast and the display of garment making talent and taste is extraordinary. Everyone has their own take on "cocktail" and as an organiser the last thing I want is for anyone to feel it's a competition, or that they're under, or over, dressed. Just come as you!

And as an organiser the last thing I've got time to do is make anything over complicated for myself. Enter some easy to sew cotton and a straight outta the packet Vogue pattern:

Bonus it has pockets!

I better start with that fabric cause then I can (maybe) explain what's on my head!

Ages ago I bought some cotton sateen from SuperCheap Fabrics and made this dress for A. I didn't have much expectation of the fabric but when it arrived I really kind of wished I was keeping it for myself. It was a lovely tight, crisp weave with a slight sheen... Anyway, when the same print with a white background recently reappeared on their website, and of course it was on sale (are they never not?!) I snapped some up. From memory it was about $8/m

A moment of calm just before the start of Frocktails 2024

I wanted a fairly straightforward pattern for the print, enter Vogue 1898 a Badgley Mischka pattern that I must have picked up some time ago and stuck on the shelf.

All I needed was an invisible zip and some lining - the perfect rayon, high quality lining (at all of $12/m) came from Textile Merchants (which happens to be right near Darebin Indoors Sports Centre where the kids were enjoying some track cycling fun over the school holidays. Winning!)

I had a back up plan if this dress didn't work out, which would to make another Vena Cava knit dress in some stashed knit fabric. So with nothing to lose I just cut a straight size 16 as per measurements and sewed it up. No adjustments. Super easy, super cheap. But what to wear underneath it?!

I couldn't find a sewing pattern for a "plunge" bra that would go anywhere near low enough so I hit the shops and found a Spanx branded bodysuit that had a crazy low front, but held everything in nicely (cost about 3x the dress!). Going to the toilet would have been a challenge, but there were so many people wearing jumpsuits (what's the collective noun for Zadies?) I wouldn't have been the only one struggling.

So what's on my head you're asking?

I figured it would be fun to add a bit more bird action to the whole ensemble, so I created this little fellow then made a little fascinator thingy for him to perch on. And you know me, of course I had to over commit to my crafting and complicate things

The crochet bird pattern comes from the Vanessa Mooncie Crocheted birds book which I've dived into a few times already. One of the birds on my dress fabric is a little red breasted robin. There is a robin in the crocheted birds book but I preferred the shape of the wren, so I just adjusted the colours to give him a red chest.

Oh, and I went way down on crochet hook size and used Scheepjes Sweet treats fine crochet cotton so he'd come out suitably tiny.

The bit where you make the wire legs before inserting them in the body always cracks me up

Then I bought as fascinator sinamay base that had a comb on the underside as well as some flowers and foliage from feather.com.au and set about creating something to perch on my head. I was fully expecting it to look ridiculous, but I didn't care. I take my Frocktails job of looking daft enough to put other people at ease very seriously!

I stitched all the flowers and foliage in place then sewed the little birds feet to the branch. Sorry bud!

I was quite surprised that it almost looked elegant. :) Most importantly it was quite light and pretty secure.

Frocktails was a blast. Like a garage sale, they turn up early and start queuing....

But unlike any garage sale they're an amazingly well dressed bunch! We had just over 400 attendees this year and it was a whirlwind. Lisa always knocks it out of the park with her outfits!