Little red dress

Happy New Year gorgeous people!!

Hope you’re all surviving the first week of the year if you’re working and soaking up the extra drops of relaxation if you’re not.

I wanted to quickly share my festive dress. This is Butterick 5748 which I made earlier this year with the included circle skirt. This time I wanted to try adding a gathered skirt to make it a little less fabric hungry. So I of course the gathered Emery dress skirt – I’m addicted to it. Now I have two versions I love!

The fabric is a gorgeous red sateen partially from Remnant Kings and partially from B&M fabrics in Leeds market. ​I LOVE the colour. Red makes me so happy and confident. When I was a little girl I wore red shoes almost every day. And now I’m an adult they’re still in high rotation. I just bought these red satin converse hahah! Plus I have a LOT of red handmade dresses.

This was a great chance to perfect my lapped zipper technique. I follow the approach in the Reader’s Digest Sewing Book which is pure gold. Here are my top tips.

• Use a slightly larger seam allowance on the zip opening say by 3-5mm.
• Follow the woven guide lines on your zipper tape or mark a clear guide to follow.
• Clip away the bulk from the seam allowance at the waist, on either side of the zipper tape to have the zip sit as flat as possible.
• If using thicker fabric, I recommend leaving the lining hanging down before securing with a stitch in the ditch like I have here. It again reduces bulk at the waist.
• Fold back the lining seam allowance before finishing the neckline seam to get a neat finish on the inside at top of the zipper.

Hopefully this wasn’t too long for a quick post! Back soon with a blouse I managed to take pics of this weekend.