Lately, my sewing has had to take a backseat to other commitments. Sewing has become my go to activity for a bit of “me-time” so in the face of a busy month, I decided to pick a pattern that I could sew a little at a time but also something a bit different and challenging. By Hand London is well known for their beautiful dresses. I recommend it to anyone who needs a special occasion dress! From BHL, the Sandeep Dress,“ has a close fitting bodice with V shaped darts, raglan flutter sleeves and a square faced neckline. Two asymmetric circle skirts are joined to a straight underskirt at the waist and mid thigh …”. For me, this pattern falls into the country chic, prairie chic or cottage core aesthetic.
Okay, this pattern uses a lot of fabric. I ended up using about 5 meters! So, needless to say, a toile was essential. I decided to toile the bodice. My measurements of 37 Bust, 33 Waist and 38 Hip put me in the Size 14 (UK) range. The bodice fit well but the raglan flutter sleeves needed a slight adjustment. I brought the front sleeve seams in by 1 cm and that made it sit well without the sleeves falling off my shoulders. I love all the tips given in the pattern on adjustment and sizing. The BHL website also has great free resources. Despite these tips, I still managed to make a big rookie mistake which was that I didn’t realise I needed to iron the rayon crepe fabric before sewing! Also, another mistake was that I’d made the toile in a different fabric. I used a cotton for a toile which was stiff so initially I thought my sizing was a UK size 16. This resulted in a bodice that was too big so I had to restart the dress (a couple of weeks lapsed before the restart as I tried to figure out how to fix it and realised that restarting was the only way to move on).
I’m thrilled with the dress! It was worth all the effort and I really enjoyed taking it slow with my sewing and working on all the details. I love styling the dress with these ankle boots. It’s a little bit of a juxtaposition being paired with such a feminine dress.
Thanks so much for reading and happy sewing!
X Em
Em Sew Happy Blog 