A Quick Update to Your Party Wardrobe in 24 hours!

With just 24 hours left to go before New Years Eve – a quick fix to your party wardrobe really can be turned around in a day! Sequins have appeared everywhere for the party wardrobe this winter with three of the Ilkley womenswear stores this month showcasing short sequinned skirts in their window displays. This teamed up with roll neck for day wear or a sparkly top for evening wear would clearly be the ‘must have’ update for my party winter wardrobe. The secret to the beautifully fitted sequinned garment is the stretch in the fabric to give it a really good fit. Such fabrics can be hard to source or tricky to buy on the web as you can’t necessarily tell the quality of the sequins. Indeed a quick look in Boyes to look at their stretch selection confirmed that their sequin fabrics would be more fancy dress than chic party update, but do not despair…

 Ilkley is awash with charity shops, which to the home sewer should be viewed as exciting fabric stores where the opportunity to buy, alter and redesign garments are limitless. Just popping into four stores I managed to find exactly what I was looking for! Al be it a dress where the off the shoulder top was the much sought after stretch black sequinned fabric with a plain black stretch skirt. A quick shimmy in the changing room trying the garment on upside down proved there was enough room in the sequin section to fit over my hips to form a skirt and enough fabric in the black section to make an integral camisole which would assist in keeping the skirt in place and not riding up. Unpicking the garments lining and armholes, taking in the seam on my overlocker and the addition of shoulder straps meant that my new party piece was complete for a fiver.

If you don’t have the courage or the luck scouring the charity shops tomorrow – why not pop in to Attic Womenswear where the lovely Sarah and her team can help you pick one out  http://atticwomenswear.com/products/samsoe-samsoe-feve-sequin-skirt or just be brave enough to bring much loved existing wardrobe pieces in your next session at The Sewing Shed for a quick party update.

December 30, 2016