Yellow Willow Dress by Love Notions

I'm on a roll, making summer dresses for myself and Gaby. Willow Wrap dress by Love Notions has been in my plans for three consecutive years already, it was high time I made it.

This dress is also the seventh of my Make Nine fabric-and-pattern busting makes for this year - not bad. The bright yellow ITY knit fabric is perfect for a light summer dress and I was extremely comfortable today in the heat on our drive from Samokov to Sofia.

You might be wondering - where is the wrap, if it is a wrap dress? Well, when I bought the  pattern, I was into wrap dresses and I have one made out of similar polka-dot ITY fabric, but in delicious chocolate-brown. As much as I love it, it is a chore to make the wrap at the bust to stay modest, so I decided for my first Willow to skip the wrap and give it a simple front with a round neckline. My other modifications - I shortened the bodice by 2 cm and the skirt by 10 cm, to suit my figure and my preferences. 

Pattern: Willow Wrap dress by Love Notions

Size: xs, shortened

Fabric: ITY 1 m

Time to make: 3 days

The pattern comes with several sleeve options regarding length and style. I chose the flutter sleeve and I am very happy with my choice, I believe it gives the simple tricot dress a trifle of sophistication and femininity. I wasn't planning on buying more ITYs this year, but I was so impressed by the comfort and wear-ease of the dress, that if I come upon a really beautiful one, I might snatch it for a similar dress for Gaby. 

Polka Dot Blouse

I finished a new blouse for myself. I am a big fan of this style of polka dot pattern, last year I made a  wrap dress out of a similar ITY print and so the moment I saw this cotton jersey I knew I had to have it.

I debated between several styles of jersey blouses - the Carmen blouse, the Adrienne blouse (which I made for Gaby last year) and in the end I settled on this Burda 6202 raglan blouse with 3/4 elasticated sleeves - simple and easy to make and wear.

Pattern: Burda 6202 from Burda Catalogue 1 / 2020

Size: 36, shortened

Fabric: cotton knit fabric, 1m.

Time to make: 2 days

I matched the new blouse with a pair of capri pants I made at the end of last summer and which I refashioned this year. In the end I did not like the cuffed up style of these pants, so I let the cuffs down as much as was possible, narrowed the legs and turned them into fairly straight 7/8 trousers. I definitely prefer them this way.

In my usual daily-walk-in-the-park style, by the poppies in front of our building

Wrap Dress

My favourite dress this summer! I sewed it three weeks ago and it's been in active rotation ever since, i just love it! It's my first wrap dress and now i get why these got so popular - they are so comfy and adjustable to your figure, especially a knit wrap dress like this one.

The fabric is a piece of ITY I bought last year from my favourite fabric shop for discounted pieces (usually the last pieces of a roll). When I bought it, I didn't have any idea what the fabric was, nor did I have a serger and I am so glad I didn't cut into it then, as I would have wasted it. 

The piece of fabric was very small, unevenly cut, probably less than 80 cm, with a long narrow strap of the same fabric attached to it (it seems that's how most fabric rolls end). It was definitely not enough for a dress and I was looking at blouses and tops, when I came upon this wrap dress pattern, made out of small upper body pieces and straps and it clicked - with some pattern tetris I could definitely make a wrap dress out of my small fabric piece!

Pattern: Dress 101 from Burda 07 / 2016

Size: 34, modified

Fabric: ITY, 100% polyester

Time to make: 3 days

My modifications: 

• I know I have a narrow back, so I made a narrow back adjustment to the back piece before cutting the fabric - and it was the right choice for me.
• The original pattern includes some fancy straps, that I did not appreciate much, so I added simple semiwide straps, enough to cover my bra straps underneath
• I omitted the waist band and attached the bodice directly to the skirt. Because I'm short, instead of making my usual 2 cm shortening of the bodice, thus I got the waist of the skirt to lie at my actual waist without modifying of the bodice.
• For lack of fabric I omitted the second layer of the skirt and simply elongated the first layer by 20 cm - the maximum I could squeeze out of my fabric piece. I know, the dress is a bit on the short side, but it's OK for the summer, especially the unprecedented hot summer we are having this year.
  

I reinforced all the edges of the pattern pieces with fusible, but next time I would use the narrow fusible strap with a stabilizing thread, especially for the armholes, as they stretched a bit after I hemmed them with a double needle. I finished all hems and edges on the overlocker and then folded them and stitched them with a double needle with a matching thread.

The wrap of the skirt almost entirely doubles the front and nothing flashes in the breeze, even if the first layer of the wrap gets opened.

I have a piece of navy ITY and I might try to make another wrap dress out of it, this pattern is a keeper!

Polka Dot Burda Blouse

This is the second pattern from Burda 06/2021 I won recently. It is dress # 108 with a square neckline - a feature, that is very much on trend this summer. I still haven't decided if I want to sew it as it is shown in the magazine in the form of a dress, as sheath dresses are not exactly my type of dresses, but I think the pattern makes a very nice and interesting blouse.

The fabric - viscose knit with elastane, had been in my stash for almost a year now. It was an interesting print, with polka dots in the central half and stripes on the sides. I wracked my brains over it, browsed for ideas and what not and still couldn't decide how to use the mixed print. In the end I decided to separate the prints and to make a blouse out of the central polka dot part and probably a sleeveless top out of the two striped remnants. The polka dot blouse is now a fact and I'm still figuring out what to make out of the two long narrow striped pieces; we'll see.

I cut the blouse out of the dress pattern in size 36, slightly grading at the hips to 38, as I wanted some ease there over jeans and skirts. The sleeves in the pattern are plain straight short sleeves, but at the last minute I decided to elongate them up to under the elbows.

 

Pattern: Dress #108 from Burda 06 / 2021

Size: 36

Fabric: viscose knit with elastane, 1 m

Time to make: two days

The most interesting feature of this pattern, which I'm definitely going to use again - the square neckline, which is formed by two folded straps and the self-facing of the top end of the front and the back. Because my fabric is not very stable, I added stitching with a double needle to fix the fold of the self-facing and the straps.

The hems of the sleeves and the blouse are finished on the overlocker and then with a narrow 1 cm fold stitched with a double needle.

Polka Dot Top

Although Gaby is in Austria, I still sew for her, go figure! :) A couple of days ago I was watching random youtube month's makes videos and I fell in love with a free top pattern - Ruffle Sleeve Top by In The Folds, published by Peppermint magazine. It was love from first sight. I immediately downloaded the pattern and the instructions and went through my small fabric stash. The polka dot light cotton was exactly what the pattern called for, so next morning I ran downtown and found light white cotton for the facing. The upper polka dot fabric is too transparent and using the same fabric for the facing would have resulted in a mess of dots, which I wanted to avoid, so pure white for the facing was the better choice.

This is the first proper professional PDF pattern I have used and I couldn't recommend it enough! Clear step-by-step instructions, which call for professional finishing with very narrow french seams; clear detailed drawings for every step; different seam allowances dependent on the type of edge and type of finishing they relate to; every size is a different layer in the PDF, so once you've chosen the size, all other sizes can be made invisible, which makes cutting the pattern so much easier. The only draw back, which is characteristic for all PDF patterns - it eats through A LOT of paper (28 sheets A4) and there's plenty of cutting, arranging and gluing before one can get to the actual sewing process. Still - I believe it is worth it.

One small notice on the sizing - the pattern claims to have been drawn for height 170 cm. I'm 156 cm and Gaby is 164 cm. I measured the paper pattern and found it to be perfect for my size, it might even be a bit short for Gaby. So for women of actual 170 cm and above it would definitely be on the shorter side. But that's also up to individual preferences, I love tops to reach the width of the hips, others might prefer them just below the waist.

Although the top has no waist shaping and just a couple of darts for the bust areas, it is quite fitting and slimming. I made size A, which is equivalent to XS and it is a bit smaller (narrow at the shoulder blades and the bust) on me. I'm considering making a similar top for myself, but I will definitely make it size B (the body measurements for B according to the chart fit me perfectly, as if they've measured me personally, amazing! :). Unfortunately, this means that I'll have to go again through the process of printing 28 pages, cutting and gluing :(

The inside of the top - all french seams. This is not the first time I'm using french seams, but the first time I'm instructed to make them so narrow (6 mm, cutting to 2-3 mm). What a difference it made! From now on I'll be using french seams every time I'm sewing delicate fabrics!