I made a green dress… this is a dress that I’ve been meaning to make for ages! and have been quietly gathering suitable green fabrics as I see or unearth them. It’s actually been a very long term work in progress! since I identified what I thought could be the first suitable fabric about four years ago. I know, right?!
You can actually see it right here; it’s the leftovers from this little bag that I made for Mum, for her birthday back in 2018… this is what I think of as the “jade” green colour centre front of the skirt part… it was harvested from a pair of silk trousers that Mum had let go years ago. The “yellow” green raw silk was from the remnant bin at Fabulous Fabrics; as was also the “grey” green silk suiting remnant… although they were trophies from separate hunting trips… and the darkest forest green cotton corduroy was leftover from these paper-bag waist trousers, and originally from Minerva.
So obviously I love this pattern a lot, it’s the sixth time I’ve made it up! Here’s a little collage of all the V1316’s I’ve made… from left to right, top to bottom they are:
1; made from four pairs of old corduroy trousers; black, brown, grey and cream…I describe how I add pockets to the design in this post too.
2; made from blue corduroy, that I pre-overdyed with different dyes to be four different shades of blue… this one is probably my own personal favourite…
4; made using old denim jeans. This was the first one I did not line, and it is perfectly fine of course! This one is probably an equal favourite for me too! 🙂
5; made using yellow cotton canvas, leftover from the covers I made for Clara’s dog beds. The seams are defined with blue bias cut cotton. This seems to be everyone else’s favourite over on instagram!
6; my new one!
I’m extremely happy with my newest one! and I made a few slight mods, has well as the usual addition of pockets! Of course! I simply CANNOT live without pockets nowadays, sorry. I know this is a very well-worn lament that perhaps should go without mentioning yet again, and yet this is a sewing blog and so I guess it really needs to be mentioned. Sorry.
I lined the dress fully with light jade green lining fabric, and instead of using the same lining fabric to cut the shoulder pieces, like the pattern suggests and which I have obeyed for versions 1,2 and 3 in the past; I cut them from the dark green cotton corduroy, I also cut an extra centre front bodice piece and stitched it to the neckline of the dress lining… these help to keep the lining “invisible” because I’ve always found in the past that the lining has a tendency to peep out on this dress, no matter how carefully you understitch the armhole and neckline edges. This is such a simple fix and I’m glad it finally occurred to me!
Still pretty chuffed with these circa 2022 labels! The challenge with each garment is to find a good spot to put it!
And this time I got creative and added a full lining too. Bias binding to hem because of the severe shortness of the skirt otherwise! You may or may not recognise the bias binding as being cut from the last leftovers to 
It’s not perfect on the inside but I’m pretty confident I can polish up the method to be very neat and tidy for the next time. I’m also quietly working on this one as a pattern for our company too.. shhhh!
item 2:
item 3:
a robe, for my dear sister in law for her recent birthday. This lovely periwinkle raw silk was in my stash, I’m about 80% sure it was from Mum when she cleaned out her stash; but honestly when and where I got some of my older fabrics is sometimes a bit of a blur. Anyway, I washed it up, measured it and had just enough for another Closet Core patterns Veronik robe.. I just had to run into Officeworks to print up a new pattern in her size. I gave it to her just before the long weekend, and she seemed very pleased!
Item three; a little mini skirt for winter. This is an old favourite pattern; the Paprika pattern Jade skirt. I think I make one of these every year?! This one has no zip at the back, and this time I fitted it quite carefully to myself first, removing a good two inches of width at the waistband from each side. This means I have to squeeze into it head first, but that’s ok!
I made some pretty new underwear… I bought this super cute Snugglepot and Cuddlepie cotton jersey from Spotlight at the very end of last year. Such a beautiful print, yes? Slice of my childhood, right there, I just could not resist!
While I had the yellow raincoat leftovers from Theo’s raincoat (previous post) I also cut out a 
O hello! I made a new dress… this is a pattern that I’ve had for years, and have only just got around to finally giving it a whirl. It’s the dp studio Le 905, or “dress with sporty details” and it’s pretty fun I think! Quite unique in all its details, and you really don’t see many of them in the sewing community. Since a major reason I sew is to have a unique wardrobe then I further reasoned that it was a good choice.
Oh, one last thing; someone on instagram asked me about the dp studio instructions, and I would have to honestly say they are minimal, at the best! If you have been sewing for a while and do not need exact and unambiguous direction then you’ll be fine. Otherwise, maybe not!
