Ana of CocoWawa invited me along to a sew-in she held at The Village Haberdashery a couple of weeks ago to sew her latest pattern – the Honeycomb Dress!

At the sew-in I was joined by Ana (@cocowawa), Gabby (@gabberdashery), Rosa (@rosabella.angelica), Maddie (@thimblebee), Marie (@stitchingodyssey), Sarah (@likesewamazing) where we all sewed our own versions!

The Honeycomb dress has a knee length gathered skirt, princess seams on the front, a back yoke, mandarin collar and shirt buttons. It uses waist ties in the princess and side seams to add definition and more shaping which have the benefits of making this easy to fit and bows!

I chose to make mine out of these gorgeous Cotten blend fabric from Sew Me Sunshine (which Harriet named Emily!). It’s got a white background with honey gold coloured flecks throughout – perfect for a dress called Honeycomb right?

I opted for a sleeveless version and shortened the skirt to a mini length. There’s something about this dress that just screams summer holiday!

I shortened the bodice by 1cm all round as I normally have to shorten these things to hit my natural waist. I could have probably done with any adjustments in this area though as it came out a little shorter than I expected.

As I made the sleeveless version, I also took in the side seams by about an inch under the arm and blending to nothing at the waist. The armholes are then finished with a bias binding.

It goes so well with my yellow sandals!

The mandarin collar is a little wide set for my liking. I weirdly had a similar issue with the Tilly and the Buttons Martha dress. I think it’s just a style choice that doesn’t quite work for me and I’m tempted to cut it off and just bind the neckline.

If I made it again I would make some adjustments to keep to collar stand as I think it does look cute though!

This is a lovely fun summer make, great for beginners and easy to fit.