I have had the reverse of a new Superking-sized duvet cover ‘lurking’ in my stash for a couple of years now. I previously made the front which had some charming embroidery into a version of Vogue 8577 that I recently upcycled. Now to use up the remainder of the cover I was inspired by pictures on Instagram to make a ‘Hannah’ dress.

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I have previously made two versions of Hannah and was therefore quietly confident regarding fit and construction.

I decided to use the latest re-drafted sleeve that has a full gathered sleeve head and cut it on the bias. I would add a bias cut frill around the neckline as I particularly liked that on my previous Hannah make. The only other change was to lengthen the bodice pieces by 1 inch.

The bodice and sleeves were lined with plain White polyester cotton and the construction of the sleeves was plain sailing.

When it came to the bias frill I mis-calculated the length required. I had measured the front edges of the wrap bodice and the back neckline before multiplying by 1½ times which I thought would be sufficient for the gathers. In a moment of ‘laziness’ I decided to use the ‘ruffler’ foot on my machine instead of traditional gathering. I set the foot to pleat every 6 stitches and stitch length 4.5mm. I then attached the frill to the bodice before stitching the bodice lining right sides together. I tried a fitting. There was insufficient frill to match up once the bodice fronts where they overlapped. I tried to ‘fudge’ it by unpicking then re-setting the pleats on the underwrap but this was still insufficient for a neat overlap. So…. I cut more bias fabric and attached to the end of the frill that was partially sewn. Re-pleated the additional length and then, once again tacked to the neckline and re-attached the bodice lining. Phew.. now it was OK. A reminder for the future though is to ensure that the pleats on the front wrap would be facing down rather than up as they are on this version!

Next I worked on the skirt panels. I attached pocket bags and completed the side seams using French seams. Once the dress was complete there would be no raw edges as the bodice is lined and the hems on the wrap edges and skirt hem were double folded and machine-stitched in place.

To complete the dress I hand stitched the bodice lining to the waistline seam and worked a machine buttonhole at the right hand side seam to facilitate the tie wrapping around to the back.

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I am very pleased with the dress and look forward to wearing it both now with White sneakers or Tan wedge espadrilles, then later in the Autumn with a Tan cardigan, tights and loafers.

Project #52 completed 21^st August 2021