Bridie: The Eva Dress

First things first I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year! I'm sorry for the considerable lack of blogging going on over the Christmas period but what with all the preparations and endless to do list that go hand in hand with this time of year, blogging seemed to get shoved off the bottom. So you may find the next few weeks you might get sick of me as I work through all the projects I've made and not yet blogged about.

Right so I made this dress back in November, again apologies for the lateness, for the second SIY Meet Up. I'd been wanting to use the tartan fabric below for ages now but wasn't sure what to make it into and as it's a vintage piece I inherited I've been a bit precious with it. It's a gorgeous mix of burnt orange, red and greys in what I believe to be brushed cotton. Perfect for autumn! 

    So for the Meet Up I decided to be brave, I already had a pattern in mind that I thought would look amazing made out of this fabric. It was the Eliza M Vintage  pattern that came free with Issue 6 of Love Sewing Magazine. I do love a freebie!

I thought pattern and fabric were a perfect match until I looked at the pattern more closely and saw that the pattern was for jersey fabric. My heart sank for a bit and then my stubbornness kicked in and I thought what the hell, I had altered patterns before and know how to make my own from blocks so had a fair idea how to make it work in non stretch fabric. I took my measurements again to compare them to the pattern sizes and decided to make it a size bigger then I normally would. This would make up for the lack of stretch and I could always take it in again where needed.     

So I went for it. 

The instructions are clear and easy to follow, with a section on preparation which would of been very helpful if I'd have been good and been using jersey!  The construction of the is pretty simple the only slightly complicated bit is the zip (of course it was the zip I've been sewing for over 10 year and I still have to look them up in my massive readers digest sewing book) and split. 

When it came to the fit there actually wasn't too much I needed to. I was expecting to have to alter the darts or side seams but thankfully all I had to do was take it in at the back as the back neckline gaped quiet a lot.   

I'm so glad I didn't chicken out because I loved the finished dress. I finished the dress off with burnt orange bias binding around the hem which I really like and seems to take less time then hemming, so that's always a plus!

I teamed the finished dress with thick grey tights (it is winter after all) and my cute brown ankle boots with a big slouchy cardigan. Which I thought looked great and gave it more of a casual look. The only thing about this dress its not one I can wear while crawling around after my little boy. It could possible do with letting it out half a cm. That or I should do some sit ups but I can tell you know I can't see that happening.   

I would defiantly recommend this pattern it looks great in non stretch fabric, I would suggest making it in a cheaper fabric if you do though so you can play with the fit  and not stress about it! Again I should probably take my own advice. Next time I make this pattern I'm going to be good and use a stretch fabric, I'll let you know the out come when I do.

Happy Sewing x