Tilly & The Buttons Indigo Dress

 Continuing on from a theme of my last post, I've made another dress that will hopefully work well across different seasons. Here's my Tilly & The Buttons Indigo dress....

The Indigo pattern has been around for a few years now, and I have to admit that when it was released it didn't initially appeal to me that much for some reason. But I kept seeing lovely versions of the pattern on Instagram and blogs, and then the add-on pack was released to offer even more options for Indigo. All of that combined meant that I decided I needed to jump on the bandwagon!

Indigo is a smock dress or top pattern with no fastenings. It has an empire waistline, floaty gathered skirt and pockets. There are options to use classic gathered seams or exposed frill seams. Between the original and add-on pack, there are a variety of sleeve options, and the add-on pack also offers a button back bodice and the possibility of making a midi dress by adding an extra tier to the skirt.

As you can probably see, I used the short sleeves and midi tier option from the add-on pack.

Sewing my Indigo dress was a breeze. The instructions are very detailed and give you plenty of help along the way. It's also a fairly simple pattern anyway, and it felt like it came together pretty quickly. Although it has to be said that all the gathering on the skirt tiers took a little while! The sewing level is rated as 'confident beginner', which I think is fair - or it makes a nice simple project if you have more experience.

In terms of sizing, I chose to make a size 5 - that's the size recommended for my bust and waist measurements. My hips are between a 5 and 6, but there's plenty of room in the hips so I just made the size 5.

I made a couple of fitting alterations. The first was very standard for me - adding 2" to the bodice length. I'm about 5'9" so I have to lengthen almost all patterns. 

When I made a toile it looked fine when I was standing still, but it was too tight across the back if I tried to move my arms so I did a broad back adjustment. I used a tutorial from Deer & Doe for making the adjustment, and added a total of 1.5" (0.75" on each side of the back bodice). That sorted the problem nicely and I can now wave my arms around as much as I want!

I also added some slim waist ties (they're hard to see in the photos, but they are there!). I've generally found that with looser fit dresses, I like the looseness in theory but in practice I think it works better for me if there's the option to add a bit of extra definition at the waistline with ties. 

The fabric I used is a star print viscose that I got from Oh Sew Crafty. I wanted a fabric that will hopefully work OK across different seasons, and star prints are one of my favourites so this was always going to appeal to me. Plus it was a bargain price so it seemed like a good option for giving this dress a try in case the style wasn't quite me.

Thankfully I needn't have worried about the Indigo dress not suiting me - I love how it turned out! It's beautifully swishy as you walk around, and the loose style means that its super comfy. I definitely think I'll wear this a lot, and I'm already on the lookout for fabric for a second version. After all, there are a lot more styles of Inidgo to try! Have you made any of the other versions of the pattern?