Simplicity Jiffy 1356

Good Afternoon peeps!

This dress was totally inspired by a tweet from @StitchOdyssey back in June, who was undecided on it. But I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to have it! Reality, however, is a slightly different story...

Seems like I finished this dress ages ago - according to my Twitter account 13th July! I've just not got round to getting any pics taken. I also haven't worn it. I just keep looking at it and putting it back in my wardrobe because I'm just not 100% sure that I like it. But then again I feel like that about everything nowadays.

I've teamed it up with a little white cardi I got from Tesco's last summer and some blue sandals from Matalan that I absolutely hated last year as they are too flat, but funnily enough this year they've barely been off my feet since the sun came out!

This is without the cardi. Think I prefer it with the cardi on. But I'm not much of a fan of sleeveless anyway.

It was incredibly easy to make, as long as you follow the instructions. I kinda winged it to begin with thinking I could pull the dress through at the shoulder seams - what was I thinking? Must have been a 'baby brain' moment because that just wasn't happening. I referred back to the instructions and un-picked a fair bit of stitching and got it right in the end!

I did not make it double sided. I like my necklines under-stitched and stabilised with fusible interfacing. Although I could probably wear it either way round, I probably won't. The big blue flowers are far more interesting than a plain white cotton dress (Which is what I used for the other side).

In my opinion, this dress isn't very flattering. It has very little shape, but that may be accentuated by my growing bump that's kinda making me look shapeless enough as it is! It is however, very practical used as a maternity dress. I graded from a size 10 at the shoulders to a 12 just under the bust and then out to a 14 from the waist down. 

I'm pretty certain that even at my biggest it will still fit, you attach 2 pieces of ribbon on either side of the front dress piece (one under the bust and one on the waist on both sides) and then you have the tie at the front, both of which are quite generous in length. It's very comfy indeed, so despite my reservations as to whether this dress is truly 'me' I'll definitely get my wear out of it!

Have you made one of these dresses? I'd love to see it on other people, who knows I might even make another post- pregnancy!

Style 4145 - A vintage maternity dress pattern

Good Afternoon, did you have a nice weekend?

I had my Dad staying with me due to some unfortunate issues with one of his houses, but he's now returned to his home in Spain. I won't go into any details about it, but it has been a very stressful week for him and my Step-mum. Fortunately, the Tour de France is on at the moment, which very quickly lifted his spirits and gave me a few hours to get some sewing in (he's Cycling mad).Then, the World cup final was on last night, so I got another couple of hours to spend on sewing, Sports season is just the best!!!

So I have a couple of projects on the go, one of which I think I will get to share very soon. Today, however, I'd like to share with you a dress that I finished last week. I was very excited to receive this pattern that I'd bought from eBay. I'd seen an episode of that old show 'Bewitched' where Samantha was pregnant and I totally adored the style of dress that she was wearing, so when I'd seen this pattern I knew I had to have it. It's not exactly the same as the dress that Samantha wore, but a similar style with fitting coming from the seam just above the bust.

I picked option 2, but I had no idea what fabric I was going to use to make it with. So, I had a rummage through my stash and picked out some rather fitting fabric (IMO). It's some Moda quilting cotton that I picked up from my local sewing shop in Darlington.

I didn't really make any adjustments to the dress, apart from lowering the neckline a little. The original neckline would have strangled me so I had to make it a little bigger, but as I had traced out all of the pieces that was no big deal.

I started off by making a toile, I wasn't sure how this pattern was going to fit and I hadn't made anything from a 'Style' pattern before. They seemed to have been a fairly mainstream pattern company back in the day, but when I have searched the internet for more information about them I've come up with nothing. Were they bought out by one of the other main pattern companies or did they just change their name at some point??


As you can see I've added a belt! After I'd made the dress I felt that it was very tent-like. I guess that may just be because my bump isn't big enough yet, but whatever the reason it looked more like a night-dress than a day dress. I made the belt from the same belt pattern piece that I got with my chambray shirt dress pattern that you can find here. I like the length and width of this belt, so why not re-use it?!

As I made the toile from lightweight white cotton, I then used it to fully line the dress as this cotton was a little too translucent in the light for my liking.

I wasn't really sure if I liked this dress, so today was the first time that I had worn it. I didn't fall out with the pattern at all whilst I was making it, so there's no bad vibes to it. As I said, I made very little adjustment to it, which really saves a lot of time. I just wasn't sure if the fabric that I had chosen was really 'me', but now I see these pictures I'm actually thinking it's not too bad after all!