My jungle has flamingoes*

How do you like your jungle flamingoes? I like mine bright. Lookee here:

Woah! Bright, right? And where to place said birds? That not being a euphemism. Although given that the flamingo fabric became the bodice section of a dress it could well become my next best euphemism. “Grr, if only me birds would face the same way.”

I really did want them to face the same way. The bodice is self-lined see, so there was a decision to be made about which flamingoes should be on top, the ones wading in water or the ones loafing about in lush grass. The water on the left won out.

The bodice is from the ‘Liza’ wrap dress. The ‘Liza’ wrap dress is a pattern for knits/jersey/stretch that can be found in the book Famous Frocks: The Little Black Dress: Patterns for 20 Garments Inspired by Fashion Icons.

I fixed the bodice to the skirt of a shop-bought jersey maxi:

Between you and I, you know how wrap fronts have a tendency to display ones birds when one is least expecting to display ones birds? Well, I took precautionary measures. I used some fusible knit interfacing on the long bias edges of the two front bodice sections and I secured clear elastic to the waist seam in the hopes of stabilising the layers of fabric. And there are layers. As I decided to self-line instead of edge with bias as suggested by the book there are five layers of fabric at that front waist seam.

Did these measures work? Well, the above pics were the only two where my birds were tamed. In the interests of keeping my personal flamingoes protected I suspect that mostly this dress will be worn with an underthing and maybe even an overthing.