Oh Sundays...
Before I hem the neckline, the sun is already setting.
Every Sunday I treat myself to a sewing day. Today I decided to finally finish off this piece- a babydoll dress made of one of my all time favourites from Michael Miller's borders. I'd got a metre of this a while back, but decided to order some plain white cotton off eBay for the top part. Classic eBay, the fabric took it's sweet time before finally arriving on my doorstep this Friday!
Before you get into anything, here's a couple tips:
- > I fully lined the top underneath because of how sheer this white cotton is.
- > its much easier to sew everything but the armholes on the reverse
- > coffee tastes better with double cream than with semi skimmed milk
I just couldn't resist throwing in a picture of my lunch! This project is so mind boggling that I had to take a cooking break, then a cycling break.
I promise, the pay off tips the scales!
One last fun fact, the whole dress was inspired by a girl I saw on my recent flight to London. Does it look like maternity wear? That's because she was travelling with a baby strapped to her chest.
I was smitten with the triangle closing at the back though- the dress looked to be from Zara (you know, odd but very complimenting shape, a basic but high quality fabric) and made out of denim.
I'd spent a couple sleepless nights figuring out how to do the triangle until I decided, whatever, let's give it a go!
Here's how I did it in 7 easy steps:
- Cut your border print in 2, join the pieces together and bunch the top hem
- Cut out the pattern for the top of a shirt, twice
- Once you've sewn 2 separate shirt patterns join their necks.
- Overlock the bunched skirt onto the outer shirt, then flip entire thing inside out, and sew the inner (which is now outer) shirt aligned to the 2 pieces.
- Take a long lunch with extra strong coffee
- Hem the sleeves and bottom of skirt
- Add on button and button hole
FIN
I had the hardest time deciding what to do with the sleeves. I considered going for a short puffy sleeve, a la Maison Cleo, but after consulting my grandmother (who taught me to sew) and being advocated I'd look like a meringue I decided against it.
What do you guys think? Although I look like I'm going to get christened, I'm so happy with how it turned out!
More pictures soon on insta so keep your eyes peeled.
Until then, please send loads of lunch ideas! ...and your beautiful sewing creations.