Once upon a time it covered my knees, and then the fabric shrunk. The empire line used to be at my natural waistline… This is entirely my fault because I didn’t bother to pre wash the cotton jersey that this dress is made up of.
The other requirement ( the sleeves) is missing because I had 2 metres of the stuff and I could get in a sleeveless dress and a t-shirt or a dress with sleeves. I decided that the obvious choice to go for was choice numero a. (Just realised that the letter a isn’t a number, but we’ll just skate over that issue… Oh and I’ll also point out that when I made the dress weeks advance of going to Italy I was not informed that we had to cover our shoulders. So in the end I just had to wear a black cardi on top which would have been fine if it was not 35 degrees and playing clarinet in a concert, which when you put some effort into it is surprisingly sweaty work. (Too much information?)
Here is a really badly photographed line drawing of the pattern I used, taken from the book called Sew U Home Stretch by Wendy Mullin. What the book does is give you a basic pattern and then shows you ways to adapt it to make completely different garments which is really useful. E.g. This skirt was gathered but the pattern only came with a fitted skirt, so what you do is cut the skirt into 3 lengthways and spread it out and now you have enough to gather. It’s a brilliant book with loads of really useful information.
It is actually a really comfy staple piece which works well with a statement necklace (as demonstrated to your left). It would also work well with shoes (as is not demonstrated to your left as I seem to have forgotten that aspect of my attire).
I would like to make another in an interesting print sometime.
Well, I think that’s just about all for now so thanks so much for reading!
Lauren x
