Chambray Maternity Shirt Dress

Good Morning! Wow this is like my second post in two days, I must be on a roll...

I actually made this dress a couple of weeks ago, when my normal clothes started to feel snug. But, as soon as I'd made it, I felt it was too much of a tent to wear, even with the belt. Well we're a few weeks on now and I actually have a little something to put in it, so I didn't feel so self conscious to have some photo's taken in it.

I'd found this pattern on eBay and it was my first maternity pattern. I think it's from the late 70's/early 80's. As I've previously mentioned, I'm not a fan of maternity patterns, of all the patterns I have seen I just haven't connected with. I'm not a fan of super stretchy cling to the bump clothes unless I'm being casual or lying around the house!

So I get the pattern out and trace off some of the pieces. This piece particularly scared me. So I thought I'd better trace it before I messed it up! However, I stuck to the instructions and you know, it didn't really turn out that bad. If you hadn't guessed it, this is the piece for the button placket at the front:

Notice I didn't bother with the buttonholes, I decided I probably wouldn't use them anyway. The only reason I put the buttons on was to stop it from looking too much like scrubs. This was the first comment that Barry made when I'd finished it - he's such a charming man at times!

Tada! This is the finished dress. I think it goes really well with my new Clarks sandals, that I must say are super comfy for high heels.

I do quite like the gathers at the shoulders and below the yoke at the back. Without the belt it looks like a tent, but once the belt is on I think it kinda looks cute with all the gathers flowing down the back and the bow of the belt.

(Gratuitous cat fight in the back ground)

Overall I'm quite happy with this dress. I still feel like it's a little big, but I'm sure I'll grow in to it. As it was my first maternity dress I didn't make any major adjustments because I wasn't even sure how it was going to turn out. I did however, shorten the dress pattern pieces by about 8 inches, as this was obviously made for a giant and not the teeny tiny 5'3" girl that I am!

The Crazy Cat Lady Dress

Good Afternoon! I hope you had a wonderful Easter. I know I did. I got to finish off a dress, start a new one and I got to see family too. How wonderful is that?

I've been trying to post this for a few days now, but unfortunately, the Blogger app on my phone no longer works. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing, I've soft reset my phone and it still wants to pop up with errors about the app stopping so I've given up. I didn't really use it for actually posting actual content anyway, that would be crazy as these new fangle touch screen jobbies aren't very nice to use to type lots of words out on. What I did use it for was a quick way to upload the photos to my blog, prior to adding the words. I suppose it was kinda a lazy thing to do anyway. So here's to a renewed relationship with Flickr!

So, I finished my Crazy Cat Lady dress just in time to wear for our dinner party with Barry's Brother, partner and ickle baby on Sunday. I certainly did feel like a domestic goddess with my hand made dress and the dinner that I cooked up from the Hairy Biker's diet cookbook. (I made their beef in red wine and I thought it was rather delish!)

I do have a little bit of a confession to make.... I am a big fat copy cat! Yup, I saw a dress that Sarah from a million dresses had made and I just had to have one of my own! Sarah's Christine Haynes version can be found here.

This is another Elisalex from By Hand London. I just love the low back, I feel so classy wearing it!

I used Andover fabric from their Catnap collection by Lizzy House. I think it's possibly one of my favourite fabrics. For quilting cotton it's surprisingly soft and I just can't resist anything to do with cats!

I am giving my cat these treats, I swear it - I'm not that much of a crazy cat lady! I love how the treat packet almost co-ordinates with my dress though...

Simplicity 2594

This was a reasonably easy pattern to follow, there weren't many steps, although I rarely follow a pattern all the way to the end now.

The 'V' was a little troublesome. The first attempt I had to un-pick it and try again. The second attempt worked, but it's not as sharp as it probably should be.

Towards the end of the instructions it tells you to top stitch the 'V', but I didn't. I felt as though if I had it would have looked a little too hand made. The way that I stitched the facing to the neckline enabled it to sit nicely without any requirement for top stitching anyway. I also didn't cut notches out as you would have seen it through the top, I just trimmed it back instead.

I'm quite pleased with the way this top has turned out, even if my boyfriend does think it looks more like a pyjama top!

You will see that my top is modelled on my new assistant - a wonderful birthday present from my Dad and Step Mum, along with my new label...