And done!

Yay! The dress I was making is now made! It didn't actually take all that long to do but was still fairly time consuming. I mean, fitting it around work, gym, a social life and (non existent) blogging, I managed to do it all in a couple of weeks. Here's the fabric:

A nice light white cotton is summery and who can resist little multicoloured love hearts? Not me! Plus, the dress is lined so (hopefully!), see through-ness shouldn't be a problem. It's not like I'm being photographed by pant seeking paps when I'm out and about anyway. Not yet.

Here's the fabric all laid out with pattern pinned on, ready for the chopping. This is the first time I've used this pattern and I find pattern and fabric cutting by far the most boring bit!

Aw, look at the sunlight streaming in my window!

Fabric chopped, it was time to set up my wee machine. My mum got my it for my birthday/Christmas a couple of years ago and it doesn't always get the workout it deserves, so it's been nice to have it back out again! As you can probably see, it's a John Lewis machine. I think it's maybe one up from their most basic ones and it has a few different stitches, it's easy to adjust stitch length, there's a button to make it reverse easily and it's easy to thread and whatnot. And, yes it was all sewn on that tiny ridiculous table!

And so to construction:

This would eventually become the skirt.

And these bits, gradually coming together, would become the top.

Skirt put together with lining on the outside. I did stitch some of the lining back to front (there's always one bit I mess up!) and had to unpick it and do it again. Luckily it was one long straight seam so didn't cause too much bother!

Here's the top all put together and just waiting to be attached to the skirt and have the zip added.

The pattern didn't have a collar on it - I just added that on. In retrospect it's a wee bit small but it's a learning curve, right? Now I know that I need to use a bigger piece if I want to do a collar again! The only other thing I'm not happy with is that the zip sits slightly funny in the bum region. However, I think this might be because the lining is slightly tight (darn thighs!). The skirt and top fit great which I'm really pleased about!

Here's the finished article:

I like that the back of the dress is a wee bit different - I didn't have the forethought to take a picture of it but the zip only goes from mid back down to bum height, then the top is closed either with a hook and eye or button. I went for a hook and eye for now because I was desperate for it to be finished but I thought about adding a non functioning button over it on the outside, just for show.

It's my first pleated skirt and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the pleats were to do. If you've never done them, I recommend having a pencil (or tailor's chalk if you're dead fancy) and a ruler - it really helped me to get the sharp lines right - I slid the ruler right up against the crease I needed to make, folded the fabric over the top and ironed. I hemmed the dressed last night while drinking champagne (OK, maybe I'm a wee bit fancy. Or maybe I won it at work.) and watching 'Far From Heaven' and wishing I had the know how to make amazing 50s style dresses as seen on screen. Still, I'm happy that this is a good start! 

Here it is on. Ignore the flowery Keds, socks and leggings - they're just what I'm wearing kicking about today! This is my excited and surprised face.

Belt: Miss Selfridge