Feeling a good kind of blue

 Hello April sewers! 

I made this dress over the long Easter weekend - it's been on my mind for a while to make a long, swishy summer dress. I had to steel myself a bit as I've mainly being sewing separates over the past year, and much prefer it - I really don't enjoy wrangling big bits of fabric.

For a few years I've had this dress pinned on my Sewing Inspiration board and a hankering to recreate it. 

This blue fabric from Minerva was intended as a toile, but has turned out much nicer than I expected - and the whole process was such a faff, I'll take a breather before embarking on the orange dot cotton one I have in mind next! 

For this dress, I used the shirt block that I've been making so much over the past months. I cut into the bodice back and front to make seams to put the ruffle into - the ruffle is a long rectangle about 1.5 times the length of the overall seam, back and front. I cut the bodice to my natural waist, and gathered it to fit a self-drafted skirt - adding a ruffle 1.5 times the length of the skirt bottom. I've put in a side "invisible" zip to get in and out - I haven't yet bought an invisible zip foot for my Pfaff, so that didn't work too well... but it's fine! 

The glass bodice buttons are from The Swagman's Daughter once more. 

I like this dress a lot - maybe it won't be the most practical thing in the world, but it turned out just as I'd imagined, and I'm excited to realise the orange one at some point...

Until soon!