Hello everyone. It’s Sunday and I’m finally sitting down after a week at Centre Parcs where 4 our of 6 family members had stomach bugs and after a busy but brilliant trip to the Dressmaker’s Ball in Leicester. I thought writing a blog post might be nice and soothing!
You’ve seen a version of this dress before in very unlike me colours… I made a gorgeous purple and orange shell print version shown below. I don’t wear it as often as I should because I can never find my nude underwear… wow life is tough right?
A quick reminder it’s an old New Look pattern I got from sewingpatterns.com to print at home. It’s an absolute pain in the butt to sort as you need special software and a licence code and there’s a limit on the number of prints allowed.
There’s a slight problem with these photos in that I’ve put on a bit of weight since I made the dress. So its tighter than it should be. I made a size 8 around the upper body and a 12 at the waist like last time. But I should have gone up to a 14 I think as it cuts in a little tighter than I hoped. A reminder for you, my measurements are currently 36A, 31, 42. I think I was a 30″ waist when I made the first dress.
The dress is so lovely to construct. I of course ditched the pencil skirt for a gathered style and this time added pockets. The only tricky part is clipping and notching the scallops properly so they turn through neatly. You need to be super accurate at getting close to but not clipping through the stitching line.
This soft and rich coloured blue chambray has tiny bicycles in it! It’s from Empress Mills currently priced £8.55. They have a few different chambray prints plus I’m in love with the jerseys they have. The bicycles are nice to wear given I’m married to a cycling fanatic who smiles when I wear it and the warm blue colour pairs perfectly with winter tights and cardigans or sandals and sunglasses!
The zipper that I installed perfectly, and matches across both waistband seams is mocking me here by stretching under my weight gain. Super annoying when I worked so hard to install it. I mean I’m still wearing it don’t get me wrong, I just hate how its pulling at the moment.
But hello, its mega cute and I’m sure I can lose an inch on my waist. If not I’ll unpick and let out the side seams. I’m not letting this pretty dress sit in my closet unworn. Maybe it’s also time for me to try another view of the pattern? It couldn’t hurt right?