Tag: Derby Day

Derby Day 2023

by two.sewing.sisters, posted in Sewing Project

For our Derby Day looks this year, we wanted to make something from unique fabrics. Derby Day is known for wearing black and white on the Saturday before the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse.  

We had found the white polka dot fabric and had been saving it up just for this occasion. Lauren wanted to draw on the velvet texture by including black velvet ribbon in the detailing of the design. The sleeves were based on Simplicity 8839, with the rest of the dress self-drafted. 

This year, Erin was looking to create a different look to our usual vibrant coloured fabric choices and found Fringe-Inserted Poplin Pinstripe at Fabric Lab.  To showcase this fun texture she was looking for a simple dress design and chose Butterick 6556. 

James’ Butterick 63339 Vest

Welcoming James to his first Spring Carnival with us we wanted to create something special!  We found this lovely textured wool that we had from our Nan’s stash and created Butterick 6339.

Derby Day 2019

by two.sewing.sisters, posted in Events, Sewing Project

The Melbourne Cup is here, get ready for a big week of hats and fashion!

Derby Day kicks off the week, with Melbourne putting on a very cold and wet day. Traditionally the dress code for the day is black and white with all race goers wear the mono chrome palette.

The Two Sewing Sisters both opted for fun, yet classic fabrics paired with matching millinery which stayed firmly within the Derby Day monchrome dress code. 

Lauren’s Outfit

Pattern: Project Runway Simplicity 1610
Fabric: purchased at Komolka while visiting Vienna, Austria 
Beret Hat: Lauren J Ritchie
Shoes: Wittner Shoes
Earrings: Tigalf

Erin’s Outfit 

This dress started with a moment of Erin say, “Loz, I’ve had a vision”. Which usually results in a great feat of sewing marvel and a hopefully incredible outcome. The vision this time was a patchwork dress in which we make hexagons that are then fused to fabric with vlisafix then stitched to the fabric then constructed into a dress. This process started over a year ago with a stack of black and white fabric.

Hexagon construction started but with a few days to go until Derby Day last year we realised it wasn’t going to be possible to finish the dress in time. So in came our black a white version of Vogue 1566, which you can read more about in our post here. This year with a little more planning the dress returned and with a lot of determination and hexagon sewing on trams we made it!

Pattern: Vogue 8494 (bodice) and Vogue 8849 (skirt)
Fabric: various fabrics from Darn Cheap Fabrics, Spotlight 
Brimmed Hat: Lauren J Ritchie
Shoes: Wittner Shoes
Gloves: Millinery Online
Earrings: Pigeonhole

Boater filled Derby Day

by two.sewing.sisters, posted in Events

Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse is part of the Melbourne Cup Spring Racing Carnival. Traditionally the dress code for the day is black and white with all race goers wear the mono chrome palette.

This was not the original plan. It is not often when we decide to abandon a project because it is not turning out how we want it or we will not get it finished in time. However, this was one of those rare times where we abandoned the project the day before… this meant we need a new vision quick smart! Insert short amount to time collecting some images on Pinterest and away we went.

Flash forward to 8 pm Friday night before the races the next day. Erin on video call with Lauren is walking around Spotlight collecting every viable black and white fabric option available. After a solid 30 minute debate over patterns, fabric and ‘visions’ it was time to check out and get sewing.

As the photos showed, the dress was finished. With two of us with hands on deck, we even managed to be in bed by midnight.

Pattern: Vogue 1566
Fabric: Spotlight, South Melbourne
Boater Hat: Lauren J Ritchie
Shoes: Wittner Shoes
Gloves: Millinery Online
Earrings: Northside Southside

Mod inspired Derby Day

by two.sewing.sisters, posted in Events

Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse is part of the Melbourne Cup Spring Racing Carnival. Traditionally the dress code for the day is black and white with all race goers wear the mono chrome palette.

Inspired by a mod vintage feel the idea was developed to compliment a pillbox style hat. Having worked on the aesthetic of the look on Pinterest we used a vintage mod sewing pattern Style 3759 that we found in a vintage store in Stockport (England) on a trip earlier this year. The focus of the look is the gold detail of the hat, so the dress needed to compliment the style.

Lauren found the texture black fabric at Prime Fabrics in New York City. The two rows of gold top stitching detail was added in accent the unique bodice line to complete the Derby Day look.

Pattern: Style 3759
Fabric: Prime Fabrics, New York City
Hat: Lauren J Ritchie
Shoes: Wittner Shoes
Earrings: Northside Southside

See what Erin wore to Derby Day here!