A (Little) Dress in the Making

I've been wanting to try my hand at dressmaking for quite a while now (I blame The Great British Sewing Bee myself). It's something I learned a little about when I started learning to sew first, but I quickly got distracted by craft sewing and quilting and never really developed the basic skills I learned. Dressmaking scares me a bit - I think it can be hard to get a good enough finish so that what you're wearing doesn't scream "homemade" rather than "handmade". Garments are less forgiving than quilts, for sure.

When the lovely Courtney at Seamstar offered me the opportunity to try out her dressmaking lawn a little while back, I absolutely jumped at the chance. Not least because she stocks the cutest prints, including the one I chose.

 

When the lawn arrived, I was even more excited. This print is so gorgeous in real life, really beautiful colours. I was wondering what the lawn would be like from a quality perspective and I was so impressed with it. Its probably a tiny bit heavier in weight than Liberty lawn, which I liked, I found it slightly easier to work with than the Liberty. It is super soft and drapes beautifully. It feels absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't stop stroking it every time I passed it for the first few days after it arrived. I will certainly be going back and buying more of this - in fact, I plan to buy more of the same print to make a summer skirt for myself, I love it so much.  Courtney also sent me some cotton solids for the lining and the contrast ruffle at the neckline, and these were similarly lovely quality. 

I decided to start off easy, and picked the Little Pearl dress pattern from the Liberty Love book. This is an a-line tunic style dress and looked to be relatively straightforward in terms of construction.

 

I've been gradually working away on the construction of the dress, which has been relatively straightforward so far. It's now all hemmed and ready to do the buttonholes (which, honestly, I am dreading), and the ruffle embellishment at the front.

 

I have my supplies all ready - I had a momentary wobble about the colour of the ruffle fabric and wondered if a moss green would work better. But I think I'll stick to the mint green.

 

Apart from the buttonholes (obviously) I can't wait to get the work done on this to get it finished and put on the little lady who is, sadly, extremely sick and miserable this week with a bad throat infection and very high temps. I think sewing time will be hard to come by for the next few days but fingers crossed she will be better before the long weekend.