But oh so good to wear. You know the drill.

Top version of the black dotty fabric.

One thing I have learnt about this fabric is that you need to set the colour, which means washing it with a handful of table salt the first time you wash it. This should stop the colour running. I didn’t do this with my green dotty fabric and it has faded and also ran into my white and black daisy dress making it not quite so white now. Still wearable though, so not a problem. I’m more bothered about the fact that the green fabric has faded. Again still wearable, just not quite as vibrant in colour as it was. Live and learn people, live and learn!

I bought 3.5m of this utterly gorgeous blue indian cotton. I found it at the sewing parlour in St Leonards-on-sea. More of a workshop than a retail shop but they are working on it, and have a gorgeous selection of fabric. I had a chat with a very lovely lady in there about my favourite subject, sewing. She was very friendly and full of good tips and ideas. If you’re ever in the area I strongly advise a visit.

I have a green and white spotty blouse, that I’ve loved for years, from before I could make my own clothes. And since starting to make my own I’ve been dreaming of making something similar. whilst what I’ve made is a long way from resembling the green blouse due to it having a button fastening down the front and peter pan collar. My version does have short sleeves which are similar and spots. That really is where any similarities end. However I am very very happy with my version.

Usual shot of pattern pieces.

I’m trying to get more of an A-line shape to my tops so I’m improvising a bit.

I’ve angled the pattern piece slightly away from the edge of the fold.

Its just a small bit, but it does give a slightly looser fit.

At some point I’ll do another pattern hack myself and draw it up on paper.

Its got just the right amount of floatyness for me.

This really is beautiful fabric. Feels so good to wear. And the blue is a great shade too, goes well with everything. Think this top has become one of my favourites. I have enough fabric left to make a dress, which was my original plan, but I don’t know I might end up making another top. Haven’t made up my mind yet. It would make a lovely dress…

I received a compliment on it from a stranger the first time I wore it. And for once I resisted the urge to say I made it.

Do you always say when you’ve made something when you get a compliment on it?

This fabric is gorgeous but really quite bad for the eyes when working with it. Also its really difficult to tell which is the right and wrong sides as both are so similar. I think it took me about an hour to decide for sure. In a way it doesn’t seem to really matter, but once you’ve decided which is the right side its really important to mark the wrong sides so all the pieces are the same side out (hope that makes sense).

So without further ado, here’s my third dress.

Pattern pieces laid out. Being careful as I want to get a top out of it too. Think I bought 3.5m but can’t quite remember. Really must start making a note of these things.

Same fabric as the green dress.

I’m really happy with the shape.

I like that the block print isn’t exactly perfect, which means I don’t have worry too much about pattern matching.

I’m also really pleased with the sleeve cuffs on both this one and the daisy print one. I read the instructions properly (finally) on how to do them and surprise surprise this results in a much neater finish.

Every time I make something that I’ve made before it turns out a little different to the previous one. I think this one is a bit looser than the first and second.

3 dresses all in a row. These make me happy!

Sometimes I do something other than sewing. Sometimes I meet friends for cake!

Like this

& this

One of my favourite things other than sewing and cake is the sea. I love love love the sea. Don’t like being on it ( I tried that) but I love looking at it and being near it. So a lovely walk along the seafront near where I live is simply a joy!

Here’s a few pics from a recent day out.

Actually I love the clouds almost as much as I love the sea.

I also popped into the lovely and very friendly Sewing parlour, they are slowly becoming a shop as well as a sewing studio. I picked up this gorgeous blue indian cotton 3.5 meters in fact. I have to say that at the moment indian cotton has to be my favourite type of fabric. Easy & comfortable to wear, easy to wash and iron.

It was the beginning of June and I was just about able to wear my M&M coat, only just, as it was warm in the sun but it did keep getting covered by cloud. I also wore the green dotty dress.

This is what I wore. Makes me so proud to be wearing a coat and dress I made. 

What can be better than a black and white daisy block print top? I’ll tell you, a black and white daisy block print dress thats what! Fabric from Merchant & Mills. I just love this fabric so much I had to have a dress in it. I think I bought 3 meters of it with the intention of making two short sleeves tops, but then I wondered if I might have enough to make a dress and a top. I don’t think I would have if I’d only had the 3 meters but I had some scrap fabric left over from when I made a previous top. So yippee!

Showing the pattern layout for dress and top.

Pattern layout for the dress.

I made it a little bit shorter than the green dotty dress as I just didn’t think it looked right being the same length. I wasn’t happy with it at all. So taking off a about 2cm made all the difference. I think it might have something to do with the colour, something about it being lighter made it look not as good as the green one.

Longer version.

Shorter, only a little bit.

I said there would be more of these dresses…