By now you will be bored with looking at pictures of my TNT bodice with various skirt incarnations. Nevertheless, here is the latest. I used a 100% cotton spot print from Fabricland, bought from the Basingstoke store when my sister and I visited back in July.

The fabric has been washed and pressed but set aside whilst I concentrated on more urgent work. Now that the evenings are drawing in and there is a definite “nip” in the air it is definitely time to make some Autumn-colour-themed dresses which will be worn with knit shrugs or cardigans.

As I had only 3 metres of this khaki green spot fabric I was not able to make my preferred circular skirt. Instead I had to “make do” with a gathered dirndl using two widths of the fabric x 30 inches length.

At first fit of the bodice I thought it a little dull and remembering that I had some “interesting” trim bought from the Mandy Shore stand at the Malvern Show, I auditioned that plus some other trims to see which would be best suited to go around the neckline and the sleeves. The centre of the chosen trim has a red thread running through so that made it easy to machine stitch using a red thread in the needle with khaki thread in the bobbin.

Inspired by my success at pattern-matching on the “Teapots” dress I have again matched the pattern on both the bodice back where there is a lapped zip fastener and the skirt.

There are pockets set into the side seams, using my usual pocket bag design they are also stitched along the waistline seam to prevent them flapping about! The short cap sleeves are lined with plain White polyester cotton. The skirt hem is a double fold and was hand stitched.

So, does the fact that I have had the fabric in my stash for a couple of months count as stash-busting? Can I now use the new fabric that I bought on Saturday or do I need to raid the “old” stash for my next project?