#3 The Monty Dress

This dress was made for my birthday party in September. I finished the hem 15mins before we had to go.

The pattern came from the June 2010 edition of Sew Hip magazine. I liked the shape but the dress in the magazine was pretty awful – it just looked like a grown woman wearing a child’s dress (which is odd, because in some ways that is totally the look I go for).

As I hoped, by not using a girly floral pattern (again, which I normally adore) and using something more glam, it turned out a lot more partyish.

It looks even better on, but I’m not ready to put my fizzog on this blog, so you’ll just have to believe me. The pleats in the front create give an exaggerated volume to skirt, which has the pleasing effect of hiding bulgy tummies and making the waist look smaller. Definitely a keeper.

#1 - The Coffee Date Dress

First things first, we cannot possibly have all this ogling without formal introductions. Blog, meet Daisy, Daisy meet Blog.

Good, now that we are all friends...

The Coffee Date Dress from Burdastyle is what I would call a classic of the genre (the genre being that of the home-dressmaker), as it is pretty simple, endlessly customizeable, and the pattern is free.

So it was the first thing I tried, et viola!

‘Oh, it’s so pretty!’ I hear you cry. Well maybe. The ruffle’s good. But the material reminds me (whether accurately or not) of a Paediatric nurse’s ‘fun’ scrubs. And the finishing… let’s turn Daisy around, shall we?

Wonky. The waist doesn’t line up. The back of the neck doesn’t line up. There are holes, people, actual holes. And it's got a hunchback.

Turns out (and I’m letting you into a little secret here) that when you are making dresses, things like grainlines and seam allowances are actually really really important. I thought that perhaps, when people go on about them, that it was all just a conspiracy to make things take longer. Y’know, like driving with your hands at ten-and-two, rinsing your rice or washing your hands after using the lav (joking).