Beach dress - #OAL2019

At last I've got this fabric made up!  I bought it two years ago and I'm very pleased to have now got a dress from it as it's really only going to get worn in summer.

I first came across the fabric on instagram in July 2017 - someone I follow had made a fabulous dress from it - and a bit of googling tracked it down to an Etsy shop.  I bought two yards - not sure why a shop in Spain is selling in yards rather than metres? - it's a wide border print fabric and there was enough to enable me to do a bit of print placement.

I used the bodice from Butterick 5748 - a retro reprint, and the skirt from Simplicity 3749 - a vintage pattern both from the early '60s.

Because the fabric was a border print I used half-inch seam allowances on the bodice side and back seams rather than the usual 5/8", to give a little ease.

The cutting out took a bit of time, but the sewing together was straightforward.  I'm not sure whether I'll actually wear it with the cardigan I knitted for the outfit-along challenge though.  They go well together, but I'll probably only wear this dress when it's hot and sunny - when I won't be in need of a wool cardigan - unless I'm in an air-conned building or on a very windy beach!

Agatha Christie cardigan

When I watched Agatha Christie's A Murder is Announced (with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple) I took rather a shine to the cardigan which Keeley Hawes' character wore.  This is a particularly good knitwear story actually, I have screenshots of quite a few items I'd like to knit from both this and the Joan Hickson version.  Actually, this was in the Joan Hickson version.

I already had some yellow DK in my stash (it's Drops extra fine merino) which I'd bought some time ago with no clear plan for it other than jumper or cardigan.  I'm not sure how long I've had the pattern.

For anyone wishing to use 4-ply, this pattern is pretty similar.

The buttons are from Swagman's Daughter and the button band is skinnier than I would have preferred because I didn't have enough wool to add another two rows to it.  This cardigan used all of the 500g which I had.

I knitted this almost exactly as written except for knitting on the button band (instead of the usual vintage long strip of skinny rib which then has to be sewn on - no thanks!), making the sleeves slightly shorter, changing the slant of shaping decreases which would look better if they were left-leaning (doing ssk instead of k2tog) and dipping the neckline at the back.  It was an easy knit, there is one pattern row and then purl, knit, purl for the next three rows. 

Being DK it knitted up pretty quickly but took me a while to sew up because there were so many knots in the wool, so as well as the seaming there was rather a lot of weaving in of ends.

And here it is

I think this will get more wear in spring and autumn than summer because it's DK, but I'm very pleased to finally have got this wool knitted up!

Paris in the rain dress

I bought the fabric for this dress when I visited Paris last month and the name comes from the fact that the day I went to visit Make My Lemonade on Canal St Martin (which is where I bought it), it was raining.  Quite a lot.

I knew I would be making a dress in this style, I just wasn't sure which bodice pattern I'd use - I decided on Butterick 5748.  This is the first time I have used this bodice with this skirt and I'll be doing so again I expect because they fit together perfectly at the waist, without any fiddling about with the pleats to get a match.

I bought 2.5 metres of fabric - which is lovely - and used all of it - there was enough for pockets and a certain amount of pattern matching which I'm very pleased about!

It was the perfect dress to wear to Hampton Court Flower Show last week - I finished it just in time on the Wednesday evening before visiting on the Thursday, and the weather was lovely - lots of warmth and sunshine.  This really is my favourite style of summer dress.