St Ives dress

I made this from three remnants which I bought a while ago (I seem to be saying that a lot recently!) from, I think, Fabrics Galore at either an Olympia or Ally Pally show.  It's furnishing fabric and each piece was 1m long, and cut halfway down the vertical length of the bolt, so I was a bit limited as to pattern choice, but figured I could work something out.  And this is it!

A Butterick 5748 bodice and the straight skirt from New Look 6824.  I had a bit of fiddling around to do to get the pleats in the front of the skirt and darts in the back to match up with the bodice darts, and also to make the skirt the same width as the bodice at the waist seam, but it all worked out in the end.

I hemmed it by hand - with thinner fabrics I usually machine sew hems, but I thought this fabric would be too bulky for a machined hem, and it's thicker than the pink polka dot fabric of the previous dress.  Even though it's a straight skirt, I seem to remember it still took quite a while to do, but hand hemming was definitely the right choice.  I love this dress, just a bit miffed that we had such a grotty summer this year and I didn't wear it much.  Here's hoping for better weather next year!

Me Made May 2017 week 4 summary

Gosh, this month is flying by and finally, the weather has warmed up!  This has definitely influenced my choice of dresses - the summery prints are now in circulation.

Monday's outfit was an Emery dress with rtw cardigan.

On Tuesday I wore my Get Cutie bird print dress with an rtw cardigan.

Wednesday saw flamingos making an appearance with my Flamingolex dress and an rtw cardigan from Audrey Star's Boutique.  I love this dress - the style and the fabric, and I have enough fabric left over to make a skirt - I should get on and do that, I'd much rather wear it than let it languish in my leftovers box!

On Thursday I wore my Carmen Miranda dress and an rtw cardigan.

On Friday I wore my Beachhuts Cambie and an rtw cardigan.

Saturday saw the first wearing of my lemon print dress - I bought this in Sainsbury's a few years ago now and love it.  I paired it with a me-made tie front cardigan from pre-blogging days (I didn't use a pattern, so no link).

And to round off the week today I'm wearing my orange floral Simplicity 1801 maxi with an rtw cardigan.

Thinking ahead, a couple of weeks ago OAL 2017 was announced.  This is a challenge to create a complete outfit with a knitted and a sewn garment, and is hosted by Lauren Taylor and Andi Satterlund.  In 2014 I watched from the sidelines, in 2015 I made these, last year I didn't get around to joining in but this year I definitely will. The challenge runs for the whole of June and July and I've got two possible combinations lined up - I'm not sure that I'll get both cardigans knitted, but two dresses should definitely be possible.  I've got the cardigan pattern for one combo and the dress pattern for the other finalised, so still need to decide on the other two in order to get a complete outfit!

Like London buses, three came along at once

During the summer I made three Cambie dresses one after the other.  One I've already blogged about here, and then I made two more in quick succession.

The first of these I made from some lawn which I got as a 3m coupon from Classic Textiles on the Goldhawk Road earlier this year.  My sister tells me that it's "very Antoine et Lili", and since she pointed that out, I kind of agree.  (Antoine et Lili have several shops in Paris and elsewhere in France - I love their aesthetic).

This didn't take long to make - I decided since the skirt was gathered and had quite a lot of fabric in it I wouldn't bother to line it - and I'd made it before so it came together pretty quickly.  However, once it was finished and I tried it on in front of a mirror on a sunny day I decided that actually, the skirt definitely needed lining because it was practically see through.  So I cut an A-line skirt lining and sewed it in.  I really like this fabric / pattern combo and am very pleased with how it's turned out.

Antoine et Lili vibe Cambie

The third Cambie from this summer I made with some fabric which I bought in Decorative Cloth in Leamington Spa last summer.  I love this fabric, it's so summery.  Not much more to say about making up this pattern, except that I didn't line this skirt either - and this one has stayed unlined because the fabric is thick enough not to need it.

Beachhuts Cambie

I really like all three of this summer's Cambies, and having unpicked the yellow one I made last year I had intended to recut and resew it straight away, but actually... it's joined my growing alterations pile because after making three in quick succession I fancied sewing something else instead.

And now autumn is approaching and my thoughts are turning to knitting so it probably won't get put back together until next spring now.  I still have five dresses which are cut out and waiting to be sewn up (although in fact one is nearly done and just needs hemming), so perhaps I should get those done first, especially since one of them I cut out last year, and another one in January.  But the siren call of wool, and knitting, is getting louder...