barfing sarah giraffe dress

One of my childhood best friends, Sarah, is a bitter (single) lady. Whenever she sees a loved up couple, whether it's in person or on tv, she rolls her eyes and remarks "BARF!" It's hilarious and I love her for it. She's also one of those tall, long limbed people so we often joke that if she ever becomes pregnant she's more likely to give birth to a lanky giraffe than a baby. Needless to say, when I saw this adorable fabric covered in loved up giraffes I knew I had to make a dress in Sarah's honour. 

After the storming success of my gingerbread man Christmas dress where I finally managed to frankenstein a bodice together to fit my upper back and shoulders, I felt confident in making a second one in non seasonal fabric. I even thought I'd add sleeves! However, I hadn't realised that would essentially mean drafting a sleeve as my armhole no longer resembled either pattern I started with.

I discovered that my armhole is weird. I know that the back armhole is meant to be slightly longer than the front to accommodate shoulder blades but mine is significantly longer, by at least an inch I think. I would be more specific but most of this dress was constructed back in February and I'm struggling to make sense of the notes I made at the time.

Needless to say, this stumped me. After at least 7 different toiles *groan* and eventually settling on a style with a slight gather at the top (more forgiving to draft than a smooth, set in sleeve) I discovered that the most successful version involved a massive forward shoulder adjustment. This involved vertically slashing my sleeve pattern at both front and back notches, removing 3/4 inch of width from the front and adding it to the back, keeping the overall sleeve width the same. My sleeve pattern looked very odd, but it seemed to work.

However when it came to the final sleeves with my beloved giraffe fabric it just was not comfortable. To say I was grumpy about it was an understatement. I HAD DONE SO MANY FLIPPING TOILES. My final fabric is slightly thicker than my toile fabric which made a difference, but ultimately I think underestimated just how differently armholes are drafted for sleeves. Mine hadn't been altered enough.

I had already clipped the curves of the armhole by this point so I didn't have enough wiggle room in the seam allowance to adjust fit either. The skirt and zip were also attached and finished so I couldn't just make the bodice sleeveless using my preferred construction method without removing both. Many swear words were uttered and the dress got shoved aside for a couple of months while I happily sewed stretchy jersey dresses which all fit beautifully (more on those in another blog post soon.)

 "Ugh, they're so in love and happy. Get a room, giraffes."

Eventually, after a couple of months, I got fed up with seeing the dress hanging on dressform Doris and made some bias binding to finish the armholes. I had to tweak the shape to make it sleeveless again which was annoying, but ultimately less annoying than having an unfinished dress lying around. The armholes still don't feel 100% comfortable, but they're wearable. I'm done with this dress and its armholes.

I feel embarrassed to admit that I've only worn this dress a couple of times since finishing it, mostly due to feelings of armhole rage. It's a shame really because it is a lovely, well fitting dress otherwise. Sometimes I need a bit of space after finishing a project if things have gone wrong. Now I can wear it happily.

I think enough time has even passed to allow me to return to this bodice block soon! I got my Aunty, who used to make wedding dresses, to have a look at the armhole and sleeve and I think I know what I need to do to make them fit better next time (famous last words, haha.) One day, I will conquer sleeves!

french fancies

Man do I love a french fancy. They're pretty and pink, dainty and sweet. Perfect afternoon tea food. What's not to love?!

I remember watching an episode of the Great British Bake Off where they made french fancies for a technical challenge. Holy moly what a mess they got in! Crumbling sponges, gloopy, irregular icing - both tragic and hysterically funny for viewers. 

When I had left over sponge and fondant icing from middle nephew's bad ass t-rex cake I knew exactly what I was wanted to create. Fondant fancies are indeed a bit fiddly and mine are slightly wonky, but they tasted delicious and I had a lot of fun making them. That could partly be because I had Gilmore Girls on tv in the background. :D

I definitely want to make these again. The only change I'd make would be to omit the butter icing from the middle of the sponges and just use jam. I don't think it's necessary considering the outside is covered in a layer of butter icing before adding the melted fondant layer. It's pretty sweet as it is!

I also need to learn to let the fancies fully dry on the cooling rack before transferring onto plates. So much stickiness. They looked relatively presentable until I tried to move them for photos, oops!

I would write down a recipe but I have no real recollection of quantities as I made these back in March. However, I'll write down a general set of instructions if anyone else fancies making their own french fancies.

Bake a basic sponge mix (I use Mary Berry's sponge traybake recipe) in an oblong tin. Once your sponge is fully cool, preferably the following day when the sponge is a bit more stable, cut it in half horizontally and sandwich together with a layer of jam. 

Cut the sponge into cubes then fully cover each cube, except the bottom, with a thin layer of butter icing (you can add food colouring if you like.) Heat your spatula/spreading knife in a cup of hot water to help your icing spread and smooth down edges. 

While your butter icing is setting, melt your block of fondant icing in a large heatproof bowl. I did this by gradually pouring enough boiling water over it  and mixing until it softened and achieved a good pouring consistency. Add some food colouring but keep some white spare for decoration at the end. 

Pour the melted fondant over each cube. You can use a spatula/knife to encourage the icing to reach edges or corners. Finally, fill an icing pen with the remaining white melted fondant (or use a teaspoon) to pipe/drizzle zig zags across each cube. 

Leave to dry then serve. You can store these in a container if you like but bear in mind the fondant icing will become very sticky. This will not affect the taste though :)