Guest blogger – Preya
It’s June and finally the sun is shining which is the perfect time to wear my new sundress. As soon as I saw this fabric I knew I wanted to make it into a dress. I love the way the pink and red flowers pop against the grey and green background. It feels very me!
The fabric is 100% lightweight cotton poplin and is the perfect balance between crisp and fluid. There’s enough body to create a full sleeve or skirt without it being too stiff. I decided to make it into my favourite hacked sundress which is a mashup of the Marsha Styes Grace dress and the Cashmerette Upton.
The way I blended the two patterns, was to use a modified version of the Upton bodice combined with the Grace tie shoulder straps. I started with the princess seamed Upton bodice (as I have a full bust this version fits me better than the standard darted bodice) and took two inches out of the length on the shoulders. This is because when I add the tie shoulders from the Grace dress I need them to sit nicely within the shoulder seams of the Upton (see picture). The bodice is lined with a white cotton fabric – I followed the instructions in the Grace dress to construct the bodice.
The skirt is just made up of two gathered rectangles with pocket bags inserted into the side seams. You can make these any length and width you want, I chose to use the widest tier from the Grace dress to create my one length skirt. In total I used just under 3m of the Ali cotton fabric.
This was a really fun sew, it came together fairly quickly and as the fabric presses well and is nice and stable, there were no problems with construction. The bit I like least about making these dresses is that the lining needs to be slip stitched to the outer bodice. Hand sewing is definitely not my forte, however it was made easier once I waxed my thread to help it slide through the layers more easily.
I’ve already worn this dress out to a vintage fair in York where these photos were taken. I can’t wait to pack it for my holiday and sip cocktails in it by the pool.
Preya x
