Shabby Apple: Reviewing and Creating

Shabby Apple

Shabby Apple, an online women’s clothing company specializing in vintage styles,  contacted me about doing a review of a dress of theirs for you all.  I’m a girly girl and the prospect of reviewing a pretty dress was just too much for me to pass up. But as this is really all about sewing around here, never fear…I managed to add some sewing into this review.

Shabby Apple

They let me choose from among a selection of the dresses they offer and I felt that this fun swinging black party dress, Boogie Woogie, would be the best fit for my body type.  I feel a bit out of season in a black dress in the middle of the summer, but black is timeless right?  And I think I now have a fun Christmas party dress!  And though they offer a slip as extra for the dress, I opted to create my own. (I told you I would get that sewing in there)

Shabby Apple

I scoured online for directions for a petticoat and ultimately used these tutorials (Tutorial 1, Tutorial 2) as inspiration and then sort of winged it with a black polyester lace/netting. I have three tiers to my petticoat and that bottom tier is made from a strip that is 8 yards long!  That’s a lot of gathering and pinning people.  Not exactly a quick project.

Shabby Apple

Ultimately I’m satisfied with my petticoat.  As with any new project, there is always room for improvement.  But I do like some of the details.  For instance I kept the selvage edge on the netting because it was a nice finish.  It provides a pretty edging for the bottom tier of the petticoat.  And I also added some extra length to the petticoat so that it peaks out from under the dress.

Shabby Apple

There are lovely things about the dress itself that I like as well.  The top is made of knit, which means it is extremely comfortable.  That also means that it fits a lot of body types more easily than a structured dress.  I kept thinking that this dress would be really good for musicians because you can really move your arms and the skirt is wide.  So there is plenty of room to move around to play an instrument or dance.  The skirt is swinging and fun and I love the pretty ribbon design on the skirt itself.  The waist band is still up in the air for me.  I think it’s cute sometimes and other times not so much.  I think I read a review of the dress where someone removed it actually.  Still debating that.

Shabby Apple

But to leave you with one last pic…my little gal couldn’t resist jumping into this photo shoot.  I think I have her trained to hop in front of that camera every time it comes out.  We had to shoo her out of a lot of shots.  But we did some special ones just because I’m soaking up every moment of this sweet stage.  I particularly loved this one of the two of us.

9 thoughts on “Shabby Apple: Reviewing and Creating”

  1. I made 20 white cotton petticoats years ago for a church youth production of "Oklahoma". I don't know if it would work for netting, but the gathering foot on my sewing machine made fast work of gathering up all that yardage, and if I remember right, it gathered as it sewed to the flat other layer. Your petticoat is really fun with that dress. Party on!

  2. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Shabby Apple! That dress looks amazing on you! I love the Heart of Me dress (http://www.shabbyapple.com/p-1523-heart-of-me.aspx). I have been eyeing it for a year, and in just a year they have come out with SO MANY cute dresses!

    I wanted to make my own petticoat as well! Could you maybe do a tutorial or point me in the way of finding a good one? I know you said it wasn't a fast project, so no worries if you decline!

    And I agree with Joanna, you DO look like one of their models! Thanks for deciding to do this!

    1. Hi Karrie, I listed three tutorials with links in the blog post. I suggest you start with those and read through them and the comments. It will give you a good feel for what it takes to make one of these and what kind of materials you would want to use! Good luck!

  3. You're a stunning model…that dress looks amazing on your curves…in all the right places…and the petticoat is the icing on the already lovely cake!

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