Earlier this year I was reflecting on life and my values, work, community etc… as you do! I decided that if I could find the right space in Wellington, I would organise a Frocktails event under my ‘brand’, Wellington Sewcialists.

When I discovered the Naumi Hotel and its beautiful bar area I knew this was the perfect venue for this event. The Frocktails committee – Nikki, Amelia and Amy and myself put together a kick arse event! There’s more photos on the hashtag here. Please note some photos are from past years events.

For the evening, I made the Viki Sews Maureen’s dress. The pattern is described as an asymmetric dress with a fitted silhouette. There is a draping through the side seams through the waist line. The dress has one long set-in sleeve with a voluminous sleeve head – the lower part is narrow. There is a slit in the left side seam and the length of the dress is below the knee.

I normally freak out about Frocktails as I’ve written about here and here. I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten braver with my sewing. I am now making pieces that are a lot bolder. Perhaps I’m feeling more confident in myself?!

I loved the look of this pattern from the pattern advertising and came across the same fabric at The Fabric Shop Otara. They stock lots of unique fabrics that I haven’t seen elsewhere! The fabric is a weird polyblend knit with sparkles – perfect for Frocktails!

This dress was so fast and simple to make – It put it together in a couple of hours. The fabric is knit so doesn’t fray. I sewed it entirely on the sewing machine. To add enough poof to the sleeve I used two bra cups from an old bikini top. They seemed to give a better shape than shoulder pads. I made size 46 in the pattern which is shockingly the largest size it goes up to. I really hope Viki Sews expands the sizing on this pattern.

The dress in the image looked super clingy so I decided to size up on the pattern. It was a good decision as I was glad the fabric wasn’t stretching over my tum instead it glided with the extra bit of ease. I found the fabric a bit clingy so wore the right undergarments to help with that 🙂

It was so cool to have both my mums at the event. Deb (Paul’s mum), designed the pattern for her dress and sewed it herself. Sue made her first dress in many years and looked stunning! Sue was lucky and won a sponsored prize on the night. It is so cool seeing both of these ladies getting more into their own creativity now that they are retired. I’m lucky to have such great mums.

Events like this are so cool to see different ages, backgrounds and ethnicities getting together all to celebrate our love of creativity and sewing!

It was wonderful to have 60 people attend the event from all over New Zealand. Community, connection and creativity were the key drivers for the event and I feel this night achieved that!

It was great to have an excuse to make something different and get glammed up!