AD – gifted fabric

It’s been a while since my last post! I’ve been busy beavering away on some Xmas gifts which has meant less to share with you guys here!

I did manage to squeeze in time to make myself a festive new dress in time for Christmas though!

I was offered my choice of fabric from the Atelier Jupe winter range by the lovely Petra and Eva who got in touch a couple of months ago. I already knew about the brand, having bought some of their fabric from Sew Me Sunshine and a previous gifted piece from Good Fabric. This Belgian brand make OEKO-TEX viscose fabrics in the most luscious prints. (They also do a few patterns as well as the fabrics!).

I had already been looking at getting some before they approached me so I knew which one I wanted! I went for the black viscose with a floral print and a gold lurex pattern. I thought the gold sparkle gave it a bit of a festive look!

Since I already had experience with the fabric I knew what to expect in terms of weight and drape – two important factors when deciding what to make with it! I knew I wanted to make something long, loose and flowy with sleeves and decided to make a mash up of the By Hand London Hannah dress (one of my favourite patterns ever) and the Deer and Doe Myosotis dress (another of my favourites!). I basically wanted to make a dress that looked like the McCall’s 7969 pattern which been popping up on my social media feeds in the last year. It’s a loose fit dress with a faux wrap bodice and big sleeves – something I thought was easily replicated with patterns I already had.

The first thing I needed to do with the pattern was essentially add the Hannah neckline and armscye to the Myosotis bodice. I wanted to keep the width of the Myosotis at the waist otherwise I wouldn’t be able to take it on or off! I lined up the centre fronts and added the overlapping section. I used the sleeve from the Hannah and used the skirt and pockets from Myosotis to complete my pattern prep.

To sew up, I used bias binding to finish the neckline after sewing up the shoulder seams. After the neckline was finished I overlapped the two bodice front at the centre and basted them together which allowed me to just handle them as one.

I wasn’t sure how much coverage I’d get from the wrap front as sometimes they can kind of gape open but I get pretty stable coverage here (that’s good drafting right there!) so I didn’t need to add a snap to the front as I thought I might.

I added waist ties in the side seams so I had the option of cinching in the waist if I wanted to. I’ve found I can also hide them in the pockets if I wanted a loose fit and didn’t want them flapping about! Perfect for a big dinner on Christmas Day!

After I took all these photos I realised how much my hair was covering the dress! That’s the result of lockdown and the lack of haircuts! 😂

If I remember to get clearer photos of this dress in future I’ll update them but for now these will have to do!