Guest blog – Emma
Hello all! I’m Emma, @SewDoitEmma over on Instagram and I’m the guest blogger here, for April. I was absolutely gobsmacked when I was chosen to be a guest blogger by Caroline and Fliss and I was even more speechless when they give me the choices of fabric, it was like I was let loose in a sweet shop!
Let me begin with a short introduction, as you know I’m Emma and I’m from Edinburgh and just live outside the city, where’s lots of green spaces! I’m currently not working (no thanks to lockdowns and this COVID-19 pandemic) but hopefully that will change soon as things start to open up again. In the meanwhile, Ive been sewing to my hearts’ content whilst testing some patterns, restarting my YouTube channel and trying to remember to use my blog to record my makes all with balancing running a house and looking after my Husband and our Springer Spaniel, Fiamma who’ll you’ll see quite often on my Instagram stories!
So it was a tough choice choosing a fabric from the options that Caroline and Fliss gave me. In the end I choose this beautiful pink viscose with a pebble pattern. I thought I had a pattern finalised but when I received it I knew I had to make a change to that choice as this viscose would make an absolute stunning Davenport Dress.
The Davenport Dress is the brand new pattern from Friday Pattern Company and I was one of the lucky few to test it. So with the tester version just hot of the sewing machine, (it was definitely fresh off the sewing machine) I quickly but carefully cut the pattern pieces out of this lovely pink pebble viscose.
If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you know I absolutely love a dress, especially if it has frills and gathering! Well, the Davenport Dress has definitely got these and I think this will be my go to woven dress for a while.
There’s zero zips, no buttons and fits easily over ones head … whooop!
I’m 5’3” so normally I have to shorten the bodice by 2-3” inches but I really have to remember and not make the skirt too short as I have this thing about bending over and revealing my booty – unintended!
Now, for my size it does say 3.70 metres but because I’m short I got away (by the skin of my teeth) with only 3 metres and I say JUST firmly! I used the grainline both ways to get the pattern pieces cut out as this viscose doesn’t have a directional print as such!
Working with this viscose was lovely. It behaved rather well. My sewing machine didn’t have any problems coping with it and I personally don’t think it was too slippery to work with. Like all viscoses, I use a very fine needle and lots of pins. This viscose didn’t fray too much but it did fray so I did finish of most of the edges with the overlocker.
The drape in this fabric is something truly spectacular. It really works from the sleeve ruffle, the gathering in the neckline to the waist drawstring and gathering in the bottom tier.
With the very light pink background and brown & black pebbles, this dress is going to get a lot of wear, Especially in spring and summer!
I’m looking forward to wearing this more, perhaps in a garden with friends as lockdown restrictions ease. I think there’s a good few of us that may not be rushing back to the rushing – all go go life pre – Covid as this slow life is definitely and has been good so far. I don’t intend to go back to my old life but I’ll take little bites from it and take it from here and now, live in the moment as they say!
Thanks for reading, and once again thank you to Caroline and Fliss for collaborating with me.
Emma x
