3rd time’s a charm?

Hello! Hope things are going well for you? I’ve been enjoying the slightly strange phenomenon of driving home from work before it gets pitch black: small pleasures!

Before I show you today’s make, I just wanted to talk about a little recognition I’ve been getting of late which has really blown me away. As well as all the lovely comments on various posts on this blog, which I absolutely love getting, my  Christmas Sophia skirt and top were featured in the Your Makes section of the last Love Sewing magazine. That was especially nice as they’d contacted me on Instagram, asking for it to be sent: thank you so much for the compliment and the lovely comment in the magazine! I was also a featured blogger on the weekly email from The Foldline, which was another enormous compliment.  It feels a little strange really, but I wanted to say thank you!

So on to my make, which is a few weeks old now but which I’ve not had time or energy to blog about. 

This is my third go at the Christine Haynes Emery dress and I think I may finally have just about cracked it!

  
(I should mention I’m short on decent photos, there just haven’t been any good days to get any natural light on the subject!)

As you can see, I went short sleeved again but fully lined it in black polyester pongee from Remnant Kings, which feels lovely. I also lopped a little more off the bodice length to improve the fit and I’ve worked out why I ended up with my previous versions being too long: I try the bodice on alone and it looks like this:

  
And I think, “hell, I’ve got seam allowance to knock off there and look how much lower down my jeans are: this must be too short”, totally ignoring the fact that my jeans don’t go near my waist, especially when, like this pair, they are old, saggy and just plain too big. 

Note to self: this is what it is supposed to feel like for this dress!

  
Looks absolutely fine on Gertude doesn’t it!

Other than that, I once again replaced the gathered skirt with a pleated one and merrily included the pockets (still can’t get over how much I love a dress with pockets!) I also added a dress label (I.e. Bit of ribbon) to the back neck.

  
I love doing this: one of these days I will have to splurge on some proper labels!

I added some hand sewn belt loops at the side seams: I decided that I am definitely going to wear this with a belt so I might as well have it stay in the right place.  Plus I actually find hand stitching the finishing steps of a project very soothing: you won’t often see a machine hem from me (unless it’s for the kids when I will take strength over beauty!)

These slight changes to fit have made all the difference: this version just feels so much comfier and I’m not for ever tugging at the skirt or bodice, trying to persuade it hang ever so slightly differently.  And here’s a classy works loo selfie to show it with my cropped cardigan!

  
A slightly classier corridor-at-home selfie shows the length better: this was after a full day at work so pardon any creases!

  
 
The only other thing to mention is the fabric.

Wow.

What an utter joy to work with.

I’m quite often uninspired by Liberty fabric when I see it around the blogosphere. It can frequently fall into the category of “nice on them, not my style”: I’m just not a small floral print kind of girl. And also, how much a metre?? But then, almost at the same time, Whitetree fabrics and Abakhan had some Liberty tana lawn at significantly lower than usual prices. And then I noticed that there was a larger than standard array of prints, including this beauty.

Hooked.

I may also potentially have bought other (say, 3?) prints which are awaiting the correct project but this was always lined up for an Emery. 

I wish I’d known before that, if you don’t self line the bodice, this could be cut easily from 2m rather than 3, then it would have been even cheaper! But then Clarinda Kaleidoscope has experimented and found that a Grainline Scout tee can be cut from less than 1m of Liberty fabric so there’s hope yet! Here’s to the next Liberty project- I may yet be a convert!

Becca x