hello! I made a fun new little dress…
this is the new Fibremood Dazzle pattern, which is actually a top pattern but I lengthened it to be a dress, simply because I had enough of this gorgeous fabric to do so!
I bought this stunning cotton ikat in Stone Mountain and Daughters, a popular fabric store in San Francisco while I was there on holiday with Yoshimi in 2019. Nearly six years ago now, wow, I can hardly believe how time flies! Well, at least I finally found a good reason to cut into this gorgeous stuff!
I cut the collar and cuffs from a neutral linen that I’ve had in my stash even longer. I think this is from Calico and Ivy originally; it’s been very useful over the years for just cutting pockets, facings, and other bits and bobs that require a sturdy and neutral coloured fabric.
I added inseam pockets to the dress, of course! and I’m pretty sure I lengthened the sleeves a bit too, so I could turn the sleeve cuffs up properly. I like the look of a turned up cuff, and prefer this look to a plain, added on cuff, if you know what I mean. I usually secure them in the turned up position by stitching-in-the-ditch at the underarm seam of the sleeves and cuffs; and sew a few firm stitches at the outer edge inside the cuff and out of sight. This seems to work pretty well for keeping the cuffs permanently turned out.
The front neckline is a polo style neckline, but slightly different from the usual in that it is stitched in a V-neck style, rather than the two sides aligning in the centre front. Gives it a slightly more sporty look. I love this dress, primarily because of the fabric, I have to admit! and have already worn it multiple times. Little loose dresses that I can wear for walking on the beach are my go-to nowadays and it’s fun finding new patterns for this purpose. This one has ticked all the boxes quite nicely!
in the Nagano region
I added a cotton pocket inside the skirt, this cut from an old worn out shirt of Sam’s. I’ve found some sort of pocket a useful addition to the skirt pattern previously although I haven’t used this one yet, in spite of wearing the skirt quite a lot already. As it turns out I always wore it with other garments with it that had more convenient pockets so didn’t need it. The Jade pattern is not ideal for pocket addition at all, but I’ve still tried to force one upon it a few times now. I’m confident that it will prove useful in future wears, though.
The other new garment is a T-shirt, made from a blue and white striped jersey also from N. You may recognise it from G’s T-shirt in my previous post. For mine, I used our own Carolyn & Cassie Pinjarra pattern, sizing up because the fabric doesn’t have much stretch. I actually didn’t have much opportunity to take a photo of the T-shirt on our trip because it was rarely warm enough to wear it by itself! plus for some reason taking pictures of my outfits didn’t take a lot of priority in my mind. Is this a good sign? Am I maybe getting more mature?! All pictures featuring the Tshirt are pretty ordinary quality, haha…
Anyway, both these pieces are obviously comfortable and nice to wear, and feel like really good new basics for my wardrobe.
hello!
Unfortunately there wasn’t enough to do every single seam and edge like I have done in previous examples of this method but I just did as many of the more prominent bodice seams before I ran out of it.
I know I’ve used this pattern quite frequently but it really is such a beautiful dress design that I don’t see myself every tiring of it any time soon. Of course I really should branch out more and I’m resolving to try more new patterns this year and not fall back so often on the old favourites. In the meantime though, some of my recent as yet unblogged projects have failed this resolution already whoops.
I wore this along with my 
