Happy New Year fellow sewists!
I hope you've been having good Januarys. I've come into 2016 so far with a sad lack of sewing enthusiasm... but I dusted off my machine last weekend determined to make something to get me feeling better about it again. I'm stalled halfway through a cotton jersey dress which is currently looking kind of depressing, so I went back to an old idea.
This dress is a hack of the By Hand London Anna bodice. I lowered the bust darts by 1" and added 1" to the centre fronts plus 5/8" SA to make a button placket. The buttons are just sewn on, and I put in a side zip - it's a bit of a squeeze on and off, but once on is very comfortable.
The skirt is just two rectangles slightly gathered to fit the bodice - I only had a metre and a half of this Goldhawk Road cotton find, and I think it's a liiiitle bit tight, hence the bunching up over my bum at the back... oh well, out of (my) sight, out of mind!
Bunchy bunchy bum.
Once I'd tried this dress on, it reminded me a bit of the old grunge look, albeit a bit more form-fitting than the dresses I used to snap up. I always found Reality Bites much more annoying than I wanted to (I had a lot of good will for that film, but they were all so irritating!), but I certainly coveted Winona's wardrobe.
I'm happy with this dress, and have already bought some black and white gingham for the next version - I might lower the neck a little... anyway, it felt good to have made something again!
