I am a regular follower of Sian Singleton of Kittenish Behaviour. There is a particular dress, Vogue 8577 that Sian and her Mum have made several times and they have inspired me to tackle this very different pattern.

This style is particularly ‘fabric hungry’ and as I did not have sufficient yardage in my stash, this was an excuse to buy some more!

I bought a pretty ditsy floral print cotton lawn from Fabricland, Salisbury branch to make View B. The fabric was laundered and sat waiting for me to get started…..a year later I finally ‘bit the bullet’ and prepared the pattern.

As the bodice (and skirt) are lined I chose to use the bodice lining as my toile and ‘iron out’ any fitting issues before I cut out the floral print.

Having added extra to accommodate my bust and tummy, at the first fitting all that additional fabric was removed! Vogue patterns in general and this one in particular do seem to have a lot of ease.

I unpicked the basted bodice, cut away the excess fabric and adjusted the pattern. I then re-stitched the bodice to check the fit for a second time. Great result, just a little fine tuning – making a sway back adjustment and adding another inch to the front bodice for full bust. Second set of pattern adjustments.

Unpicked the bodice for the second time and compared against my revised pattern. All OK so now I could cut and make the bodice in the floral fabric. I also cut out the remainder of the pattern pieces. I have to say that the skirt is very full and the pockets are huge!

As I had spent so long refining the bodice and due to the fullness of the skirt I decided to forego the lining of the skirt. In any event, a full skirt lining would have made the dress very heavy to wear.

Construction was fairly straightforward although I wish now that I had re-visited Sian’s Sewalong and then I would have avoided having to make bias binding for the armhole edges. Next time I will adopt her method and ‘bag out’ the bodice lining.

The only changes that I made were to fold out the centre back seam on the bodice, make a centre back seam in the skirt panel, top stitch part of the pocket band in place and increase the number of buttons from 10 to 15. The buttons came from my stash and are the same as those used on the Stork print dress.

I am very pleased with the dress and having spent time and effort to get the bodice just right, will definitely make again. I just have to find a long length of fabric!

As promised in the previous post, here is the description about my re-fashioning project – I re-fashioned Superking size Duvet cover into a dress. There was a sale advertised at Dunelm Mill store and inspired by the makes of Ditsy Tulip I decided to browse the bedding department to check if there was anything suitable for dressmaking.

I struck Gold! I ended up buying three covers. The ‘Pioneer’ designed cover of Blue and White stripes with an embroidered border was a real bargain, reduced from over £50 to £14.99 so obviously I could not pass that up.

I could not wait to sew up a new dress with the Striped cover and by the end of the first day it had been laundered and was ready for unpicking.

Thinking about the design I did not want to break up the border of the skirt so it would have to be gathered or pleated. I could use the border stitched on the pillow cases for the sleeves and that left the bodice to decide upon. As there was ‘busyness’ on the skirt and sleeves I thought it best to have a fairly plain bodice, but this time I would try a V-neckline. I drew a quick sketch of my ideas and then hacked my TNT bodice to give a V-neckline with front button closure to the waistline seam.

The duvet cover is a poly/cotton blend and as I did not want any ‘show through’ on the bodice, I interlined with some of the plain White fabric that was the reverse of the duvet cover. I think that it has worked well. I also used the plain fabric for the pocket linings.

I used some buttons from my stash that pick up on the Blue & White theme with an little accent of Red.

The design has worked well although I have made a couple of ‘rookie’ errors in that the top-stitching on the neckline does not quite match up but that is ‘small beer’ in the overall scheme of things.

The final analysis – I have experimented, produced a pretty and different dress without taking days to work the elaborate embroidery on the skirt and sleeves.

It is the tradition among the Friday House Group of patchwork and quilters to have a Secret Birthday Sister. My birthday is at the beginning of July and my secret sister gave me 2.75 metres of a charming floral print on Duck Egg Blue cotton from Fabricland.

Using my latest newly drafted dress design with the extended front panel, I did away with the collar and button fastening, hacked a scoop neckline and inserted a lapped zip into a centre back seam. Of course, there are pockets in the side seam!

Over the next few days I worked away at the construction and by the following Friday was able to wear the dress and display my birthday gifted fabric to my patchwork and quilting friends.

I am especially pleased with this dress and delighted that the colour highlights in the blossom exactly match my Coral Pink shrug.

This is the second ‘new style’ dress that I have made and fired up with enthusiasm I went ahead with yet another ‘new’ design. See the next post to learn how I re-fashioned a brand new superking sized duvet cover into a new dress!

I recently decided that I need to expand the style and design of dresses that I make. I have so many different patterns in my stash that I am sure I shall never get around to making them all.

The first new style on the list was to be the Alder dress by Grainline Studios. I have this pattern in pdf format but not got around to printing it off. I studied the line drawing and having thought about it for a while believed that I could draft something very similar using my TNT bodice block.

I first started with the simple rever collar which is also a TNT pattern. Then I extended the bodice front by 30 inches from the centre of the body darts and drew a parallel line to the front edge to make the centre front panel which would include a button fastening. The front facing was also extended by 30 inches which I knew would be too long but best to err on the side of safety and have too much rather than too little. The skirt was two rectangles, cut 30 inches deep x the width of the fabric which was 42 inches. Of course, I included my standard side seam pockets.

The fabric is yet another 100% cotton printed with birds (Storks or Cranes?) from the Salisbury branch of Fabricland. I bought 4 metres but only used just over 3 metres. I have since purchased some more fabric in this print to combine with the remnant and make a Summer Shirt/tunic top.

Construction took a little thinking about but in fact turned out to be fairly straightforward; I first stitched the darts for bust and the body darts on the back bodice. The shoulder seams were stitched and the collar basted into position. This was followed by the side seams of the bodice, checked for fit and then stitched. I made up the skirt which included slashing a ‘side seam’ into which the pockets were inserted and ran two rows of gathering thread along the top edge.

I did toy with the idea of adding a self-fabric tie belt but having pinned into place, was soon discarded. The skirt was attached to the bodice up to the centre point of the front bodice body darts. Those darts were then stitched and run down to join the front edge of the skirt panels to the extended centre panels of the bodice. The front facing was attached then buttonholes and buttons (Pale Duck Egg Blue from my stash) stitched. The armholes are bound with self-fabric bias binding. There is a wide 3 inch hem which I hand stitched in place.

I am absolutely delighted with this dress it has turned out just as I wanted and planned. I have some more cotton print from Fabricland that was gifted to me by the ladies of the Friday Sewing House Group and I plan to make another version of this new style dress.