I decided to pull out an old pattern for this make – the I Am Patterns Cassiopée dress! This one made the rounds a couple of years ago (you can see my original one here!) when everyone seemed to be making it! It’s a loose fit raglan sleeved dress with a gathered skirt – super casual and comfy.

I’d bought a piece of ponte roma from 1st For Fabrics with the intention of making a sweater but when I received it I felt it was a bit thinner than what I initially wanted it for. I decided that a dress would work better instead!

I don’t do a huge amount of jersey dresses anymore. I actually just don’t use much jersey in general at the moment – I don’t know why! It meant I felt a little uninspired when it came to picking a pattern. I knew I didn’t want anything too tight fitted. At the end of the day I needed something casual I could lounge in! That’s when the Cassiopée dress came to mind!

Whilst this dress was initially designed for wovens, I Am Patterns made a free expansion pack to accommodate jerseys too by using ribbing for a neckband and cuff.

Not that I used it… I drafted myself a neck band and opted to leave the sleeve hemmed with my coverstitch machine instead of cuffed.

I cut the skirt on the crossgrain so the stripes ran vertically. As it’s not a very stretchy jersey I wasn’t worried about it pulling out of shape.

I added some patch pockets to the front and it was done!

After all that, it just seemed like a LOT of stripes and I wanted to break it up a bit. I decided to add a little bit of embroidery to it to add some colour!

I drew out my design on some Solvy (which is a dissolvable interfacing) which I then stuck in place with a temporary adhesive.

I did a floral design with the quote “I dwell in possibility” by Emily Dickinson. I love how the writing turned out!