Another blue dress for the collection

Hello hello! How are you all today? Good I hope! Life's a bit busy around here at the moment, but I have a little backlog of projects to share with you still. I'll start with this patterned blue number (because clearly I don't have enough blue in my wardrobe already....)

If this dress seems somewhat familiar, that's probably because it is! This is the second dress that I've made using the patterns from the book Sew Many Dresses, Sew Little Time by Tanya Whelan. It's the same basic bodice with scoop neck as I used for my recent spotty dress, but this time with a gathered skirt instead of a circle skirt.

I finished making this dress a few weeks ago now, and it's already been worn a number of times. For a while, it seemed fated to always end up being worn on dull, rainy days when any photos I took wouldn't do it justice, but then thankfully the sun came out so it can have its chance to shine. 

The fabric for this one was a bargain in the John Lewis sale in January. I bought it because it was obviously a lovely quality fabric, and the colours are right up my street, but I wasn't sure quite how the print would look once translated into dress form. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised when I finished sewing, and I think it works nicely as a dress. It's always better for it to work that way round, rather than having high hopes at the start and ending up disappointed by a finished project, isn't it?

This was another nice straightforward project, with very little to say about the construction that I didn't already cover for the spotty dress. 

One thing I didn't mention that time was that in both of these dresses I've only got a pocket in one side, because they have side zips and I was being a bit lazy and didn't want to fiddle about with trying to get a pocket and zip in the same place. I debated for a while whether it would be weird to just have one pocket, but then I decided that part of the joy of sewing is that I can make a dress with only one pocket if I want. And it turns out that one pocket is fine! It's not too lazy of me is it?!

The fit of the bodice is slightly looser than others I'm used to (mainly the Emery), but I quite like it that way. It's nice to have slightly different fitting options depending on how you're feeling (or how much you've eaten!), and this bodice/skirt combination definitely makes for a great everyday dress.

I've got another similar dress with a different neckline finished, so I think this book has already proved to be a very good present. I need to try out some of the other options soon just to make sure though! What have you been sewing recently?