A few posts ago I told you about my very first iteration of the Vogue 8577 dress pattern ‘Sian made me do it’. I was so enamoured of the style which was a big departure for me that I have since made three more versions of the dress.

Using the fantastic bargain cotton lawn purchased at the Festival of Quilts. The fabric had been was laundered and sat waiting for me, in less than one month I started cutting out!

I made up the dress according to the pattern but omitted the huge pockets and used concealed side seam pockets instead. As I was using concealed side seam pockets, I cut the front skirt panel from the lining pattern. First I made up the skirt panels using French seams and incorporating the pockets. This was then pinned to the mannequin whilst I concentrated on the bodice.

The bodice is again lined with some White poly/cotton from my stash but the skirt remains unlined.

Having already made the dress once before, this time I paid attention to Sian’s sew-a-long and made a couple of changes to the order of work. I attached the front facing only partway down the bodice front lining before stitching the lining to the main fabric at the neckline and front edges. Having trimmed the seam allowances I was able to understitch the facing before then stitching the armholes and turning through to the right side. By following Sian’s method this meant that I did not need to use bias binding on the armholes and it left a much neater finish.

After a fitting I stitched the side seams of the main fabric and lining of the bodice in one pass. All seam allowances were trimmed with pinking shears and the side seams pressed open and flat. I now had a bodice ready to attach the skirt.

Once the skirt was attached I completed the stitching of the facings and started looking for buttons. I knew that like on the previous iteration, I wanted to have 15 buttons. With such a busy print I was a little unsure as to what buttons to use but came up trumps with these charming flower-shaped buttons in Brown that were in my stash – and I had 17 of them!

For the finish of the hem, I still did not use bias binding. Instead I overlocked the hem edge before turning to the inside and top-stitching in place.

I am very pleased with the dress which takes pride of place in my new Autumn collection and coordinates with several of my cropped shrugs.