Stitched in Wonderland Daydreamer Dress

Needlecord is one of my favourite fabrics for autumn and winter sewing. It feels beautifully soft and is cosy to wear, and as an added bonus is also easy to work with. What more could you want?! With that in mind, it's no surprise that needlecord was my fabric of choice for my first autumnal project of the year - a Stitched in Wonderland Daydreamer dress.

The Daydreamer dress is a relaxed fit dress with a button front bodice, grown-on short or long sleeves, gathered knee-length skirt, optional tie belt and (importantly!) in-seam pockets.

The bodice comes in three cup sizes (B, C and D) for bust measurements between 30" and 52". The hip measurement range for the pattern is 33" to 53".

The dress is a relatively straightforward project and my Daydreamer seemed to come together fairly quickly. The instructions are detailed and I found them easy to follow. They're illustrated with photos, which were mostly clear enough and did have additional marks added to clarify some details.

The only thing I might do differently if I make this pattern again (a definite possibility!) would be to sew the buttonholes before binding the neckline. The buttonhole function on my sewing machine is generally fairly reliable, but it does struggle a bit on thick fabric or if there's a thick layer just before/after a buttonhole so I actually ended up unpicking a small section of the neckline binding above my top buttonhole, then sewed the buttonhole and finally sewed the binding back in place.

In terms of sizing, I'd say if you follow the sizes recommended for your measurements then the fit will be very relaxed. I used the C cup bodice and made a size D at the bust, blending out to an E at the waist and hips. The D bust is a size smaller than recommended for my current measurements, and my waist is currently between an E and an F. The combination of the D and E sizes worked out well for me - my finished dress is a nicely relaxed fit without verging into sack-like territory.

The only alterations I made were to lengthen both the bodice and the skirt by 2 inches each. That's partly because I'm a bit taller than average (I'm 5'9"), and partly because I wanted the skirt to be slightly longer than knee length.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, the fabric I used is a lovely needlecord that I bought from Sew Much Moor. It's a dark navy with a pretty design of small white flowers with little gold accents. The fabric is great quality, is really perfect for this dress and feels like it'll wear well.

I really like how my Daydreamer dress turned out, and it's so comfy to wear. It works well on in its own, with a cardigan or layered over a t-shirt so I know that it'll be getting a lot of outings over the coming months! How's your autumn (or spring if you're in the southern hemisphere!) sewing going?

In Complete Stitches Planetary Backpack

Every now and then I like to step away from sewing clothes and indulge in a little bag making. It's still sewing obviously, but you get to use slightly different techniques and processes, and of course there's no need to worry about fitting. My latest bag project is the Planetary Backpack from In Complete Stitches.

The Planetary backpack is a lined drawstring backpack, with a top cover flap, outer front pocket and inner slip pockets. It uses webbing for the straps.

Fellow dressmakers will probably appreciate the fact that the pattern provides pattern pieces rather than giving cutting measurements, and even has an A0 file that you can send to a printer rather than having to tape together a PDF.

The instructions are very detailed and are accompanied by helpful illustrations. I found the directions very easy to follow and didn't have any trouble making my backpack. 

There are helpful tips included along the way, such as pointing out areas where you may need to hand crank your sewing machine where there are quite a few layers of fabric - I definitely had to follow this tip a few times.

I used the idea in the instructions for hemming the ends of the drawstring casing instead of using eyelets because I didn't have any eyelets. I also used a magnetic snap fastener instead of a regular snap fastener for the outer front pocket, again just because I already had some of them in my stash. 

The rainbow motif on my top cover flap is my latest hand embroidery project. It's a pattern by Hope Steward from issue 28 of Love Embroidery magazine. I bought a thread pack from Hello Hooray to make sure that I'd have nicely complimentary bright rainbow shades (I didn't use the lighter green in the pack because the pattern only uses six colours in the rainbow). 

I enjoyed stitching the design and found it very relaxing. I'm really pleased with how it turned out - I often struggle to get satin stitch looking neat, but I think I've done a fairly good job here.

All of the fabrics that I used for my backpack came from my stash. The indigo denim that I used for most of the outer is left over from making my Yanta overalls, and the white and red striped cotton twill on the outer and floral white and red cotton for the lining were both from charity shops. 

I really like the rainbow webbing that I used for the straps - it seemed the perfect choice to use with my rainbow embroidery! I found it on Etsy - although just to note that the webbing I was sent is different from the photos of the rainbow webbing that were shown in the listing when I ordered and that are still shown in the listing as I write this.

I enjoyed sewing my Planetary backpack and I'm pleased with how it turned out. I'm looking forward to taking it out and about for some adventures! I'd happily recommend this pattern, and I've got my eye on a couple of the other patterns from In Complete Stitches for future bag making projects.