Saturday, 5 September 2020

Brown gingham dress

Having done no knitting or sewing over the summer, I started sewing this dress over the bank holiday weekend and finished it yesterday afternoon.  I came across this pattern while noodling around Instagram and seeing a version which someone else had made and deciding that I wanted to sew it too.


 

The fabric is cotton gingham from Fabworks and it was lovely to sew with.  I cut out the medium size and made a couple of changes - the sleeves are from view B / C / D but lengthened by 6" and with the edge binding from view A.  While I like the look of these voluminous sleeves I know that I would end up catching them on something, so decided on a compromise and am pleased with how they've turned out.  The second change I made was to the length.  I wanted a slightly below mid-calf finished length so used the maxi skirt piece but shortened it by 10+" and then did a 4" hem.  I also added pockets in the side seams of the skirt - I used pattern pieces from the Felicia dress because those are what I happened to have to hand. 

I'll probably make another version of this because I like how it's turned out, and maybe cut the skirt pieces full length and then do some pin tucks to end up with a wearable length.



This dress will be great in summer when all you want is a loose cover-up, but I'll also wear it in winter with a polo-neck jumper underneath and boots, so it'll get plenty of wear.

Me made May 2020 - better late than never!

Well, this is being published months late, however I would like a record of it on here, so here is a quick summary.

This year we were in the middle of lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic, so I was working at home and it would have been easy to just wear PJs all day (except for the video meetings of course), but I think that would have been a cop out, plus I have far more dresses than PJs...

The month started off cold, but warmed up as it progressed so there was a mixture of woolly jumpers and cardigans and cotton dresses during the month.  My pledge was to finish the top I was already knitting and to make a dress and I'm pleased that I got both those things done.  So, without further ado, here are the outfits.


Days 1 - 6

Days 7 - 12

Days 13 - 18

Days 19 - 24
 
Days 25 - 28

Days 29 - 31

I did quite a lot of local walking during May, and just for a change from knitting and sewing content, here are some of the photos I took - some from plants in my garden, some from my amblings.

 







And that was me-made May 2020!