Isn’t this fabric totally gorgeous?!! I love it so much! I still have a huge affinity to pink, despite that I’m not “supposed” to wear it, whatever that means.. well, if it makes you happy! And this little group of colours really does.
This is the Hand Drawn check by Nerida Hansen fabrics, colourway Navy Pink – yes of course they had me at “navy” plus “pink”; one of my all time favourite colour combinations! and I used one of their patterns, the Summer dress to make this too! btw way, yes those are direct links to the things, but rest assured they are not affiliate links 🙂
goes so nicely with my teal clogs!! #bonus
and yes I made those too… details here
I’m totally over the moon with the gorgeously pretty and floaty result… it’s a really lovely combination, if I say so myself 🙂 The design is very simple; it just slips over your head with no closure needed, my favourite sort of thing to wear, especially in summer 😉 and the beautiful cool slipperiness of the tencel linen sliding over your body as it goes is an absolute delight.
The Summer dress design has massive pockets, ahem; not that that is in any way important, of course! 😉 and a slight oversized-ness that feels happily up-to-the-minute in the fashion stakes. I wasn’t sure if I should go down a size, but in the end decided to trust the size chart. And actually I’m in love with the loose fit. I really like the midi length. It’s not a length that I’ve been wearing a lot over the last few years but I feel it sneaking back into my list of “wants”; as in things that my mind feels lately are all of flattering, comfortable, and a little bit of a refreshing change. They say that hemline lengths are the barometer of the fashion world? well who knows, I often just think that anything goes in fashion right now, but it is nice to have a variety of things to choose from in the wardrobe.
I was careful to match up the checks at the side as best I could; even though I sometimes rail against the rigidity of this mindset, and I feel like it can sometimes lead to more fabric wastage too… I still do it myself most of the time! It does look a lot nicer when you go to the effort of making sure the print is nice and consistent all around. As it turned out; the skirt length was just about perfect that there was almost no wastage through pattern matching; which was a nice outcome. And I managed to cut the huge deep pockets from the sides, so I actually have a small amount of leftovers for … something.
Of course I fell in love with that print first and foremost, but actually the quality is superb as well. It sewed up beautifully; very soft and supple, but has a very nice amount of body too.
I cut some of the leftovers into bias strips and made bias binding; which I used to bind the front and back facing. I love the look of this! and of course it’s a much more comfortable finish to wear than if you just whizz it around on the overlocker; which can be scratchy. Of course I also added a circa 2022 label. These are so cute! and the novelty has not worn off at all for me 🙂 Probably going to put one of these on each and every thing I make for myself this year!
And I made a mask. As you do. However, just something about the print – which I love! – well in a mask I felt like it turned out a little bit … Hannibel Lector-ish? Yeah, I know; once you see it… The dress itself doesn’t trigger that for me at all… but in a mask? hmmm!
Why yes, I did indeed made my hat too. One of my all-time most worn garments! Details here
Now I have to confess this fabric was new to me this year, so I can’t really count it in my #use30 metres fr0m stash. In the process of testing our new pattern lately I have used another 4m of fabric from my stash, but I really should ADD the 2m I used for this gorgeous dress in there to be fair! So; I think I can subtract the balance of 2m off my tally; bringing me up to 15m used, and 15m to go? sounds kinda about right? I know; it’s getting a bit dodgy in the accounting department but honestly I have zero regrets. I absolutely love this fabric and it makes me very happy, so I’m definitely not beating myself up over the whole thing. I will use 30m from the standing stash in the end, however long it takes, and I’m content with that.
I’ve made lots of Closet Core patterns’ Ebony tees and dresses for others and this is the first one for me! I finally used this absolutely beautiful, delicate grey/green wool knit that I bought in Tokyo, one of of our trips over there. It’s beautiful stuff, with an almost lace-like texture to it, but unfortunately it had developed a few little moth holes over the years since I bought it.
I stitched the outer and lining together around the neckline, and under stitched using a wide, shallow zigzag stitch. I also handstitched them together at the underarm points, just to anchor the lining inside secretly.
These are made using the piece from Butterick 5583, and the fabrics are all scraps and leftovers from other projects. One of them is from one of Cassie’s old skirts, another two are from Craig’s old shirts, and one of the boys’. The other cute prints are all from the leftovers from Craig’s surgical caps, fabric originally from Spotlight. The backing is thin cotton towelling, that I already had in my stash too.
The funny thing was; I knew I was going to like this dress because the fabric is just so utterly divine, the pattern that I was a little hmmm about…? but I’m completely in love with the end result so all’s well that ends very very well!
Item A; a dress for Mum to wear to Cassie’s wedding…
For her birthday, we went out together and bought a few lengths of fabric which I was to make into some simple work outfits for her. Of course now she’s working from home but that’s ok; at least she’s still working!
Item C; some shorts for Cassie’s birthday. For these I started with the Closet Case patterns Pietra shorts and did the same 
This second one I used 
