Sewaholic Cambie Dress

Back when I first started making my own clothes last year, there was one pattern in particular that caught my eye that I knew I wanted to make at some point - to be honest the only reason that I didn't start making one there and then was because I knew my very novice skills wouldn't do it justice! While I'm by no means claiming that I've become an expert in the last year, I knew that I was now definitely up to the task so it was time to sew myself a Sewaholic Cambie dress.

The Cambie is rated as an intermediate pattern, which is what put me and my then-limited skills off last summer, and I think that is probably right as it is a bit more complicated than a standard beginner pattern due to the full lining. At the same time though, there's absolutely nothing scary about this and, as always with Sewaholic patterns, the instructions and diagrams are totally clear and easy to follow and everything came together really nicely.

The Cambie is such a gorgeous design and so flattering - or I think it is at least! The sweetheart neckline is really pretty and the gathered cap sleeves add an interesting bit of detail. I think having the separate waistband also really helps to define the waist, which is always a good thing as far as I'm concerned. It's also probably no secret by now that I'm fairly fond of girly dresses with nicely fitting bodices and twirly skirts, and this definitely fits that bill - plus there's the added bonus of pockets in the skirt. That's not to say that I don't like view A with the A-line skirt though - that will be on my to-sew list at some point in the future.

Without wanting to tempt fate, I think I might have done a U-turn in my opinions on invisible zips! After completely losing faith in them when one broke on me a month or so ago, they now seem to be behaving themselves and I haven't had any trouble (touch wood...) with the last couple that I've sewn, and they do give a nice finish to a garment.

I cut a size 14 at the bust, grading down to a 12 at the waist and back out to a 14 at the hips, although I could probably have got away with using a straight size 12 for the skirt - it's lovely and full so there's plenty of room around the hips. Other than this, as normal I needed to add a bit of length to the bodice (an inch and a quarter in this case), and that gave me a toile that fitted really nicely. 

Once I came to try on the dress to check the length for hemming, I noticed that somewhere between the toile and the finished dress the sleeves seemed to have grown a bit and, even though the bodice fit me perfectly from the neckline down, I had extra material up around my shoulders. I fixed this by unpicking the seam between the front of the sleeve and the neckline, and then inserting more of the sleeve through the gap that is left there. This does mean that my shoulder seams are slightly further forward than they should be, but I don't think anyone other than fellow sewists would notice this, and it seemed like a much better option to me at that point than unpicking all of the lining to adjust the shoulder seams instead!

The fabric that I used is a John Kaldor cotton lawn that I got from Fabric Rehab, although unfortunately it looks like it's sold out now. It was lovely to sew and it's great to wear. As the shape of the Cambie is undeniably pretty girly, I quite liked the idea of using a more geometric, abstract print for this one, and the gorgeous shade of blue and white together are a good colour combination for me so choosing this fabric was pretty much a no-brainer. I intentionally cut the waistband with the print in the different direction to try to make it stand out more, which I think has worked. For the lining, I used some plain white cotton voile that I got from Abakhan - again it seems to have sold out (and I'm now wishing I'd ordered more!) but this is the same fabric in black, it works really well for lining summer dresses.

This might be quite a big statement to make, but I think this may possibly be my new favourite dress. I love the print and the colour, it's really flattering and it feels great to wear. 

I've come to the conclusion that one way to judge the success of a sewing project is to compare how easy it is to get decent photos of each garment - I always make far more weird faces and awkward-looking poses when I'm wearing things that I'm not entirely happy with, whereas with this one, while I'm definitely no supermodel, the main "problem" was not getting blinded by all the lovely evening sunshine - which isn't a problem I'll be complaining about any time soon because, after all, more sun equals more excuse for making pretty sundresses, yay!

Sew La Di Da Sweetheart Dress

When I was browsing the sewing magazines in Smiths the other week, I was excited to see that this month's issue of Sewing World included a really pretty pattern for the Sweetheart dress by Sew La Di Da. It went straight to the top of my 'to-sew' list, and here's my finished dress...

What's not to love about a gorgeous full skirt and that pretty neckline?! I may have been living under a rock or something, but I hadn't really come across Sew La Di Da before I saw this dress in the magazine, but they have some beautiful patterns - I particularly like the French Gypsy and Rose dresses. They also have classes and workshops in Lyme Regis, and I love Lyme Regis so they must be good!

I cut out a straight size 14 - based on the paper pattern, I added 1 inch to the bodice sections (which is a standard adjustment for me) and then did a quick toile of the bodice to check that it would be OK, and it was. I'm pretty happy with the fit of the finished dress, the shape itself is really good but there's a tiny bit of extra space all over the dress. It really is tiny, and I don't mind this dress being a teeny bit on the big side because I'm planning that it'll be an everyday dress, and it's always good to have room to move in daily life! I think this would be a gorgeous dress to make for a special occasion too though, and if I were doing that then I'd probably use ever-so-slightly bigger seam allowances on the bodice section, particularly around the waist, to take out the slight looseness.

The instructions are presented in a fun vintage style and were really easy to follow. They're also accompanied by nice, clear black and white photos of each step so that you know you're on the right track. Tracing the pattern pieces from the pattern sheet included with the magazine was a bit of a headache, but that's the price you pay for getting the pattern free in a magazine, and I imagine wouldn't be an issue at all if you bought the paper pattern from Sew La Di Da.

At the point when you come to sewing in the back zip, the instructions tell you to try on the dress and have a friend pin you in to mark where you need the zip/seam to be. This wasn't an approach I'd used before, but it seems like it's probably a good way of helping you get a nice fit. The dress closes with an invisible zip - I'm not a massive fan of invisible zips but I thought I'd give one another go this time and I'm glad I did. And while it's not totally invisible, it is more invisible than it looks in this photo!

The material is a pretty cotton poplin that I got online from Chawla's - not the most user-friendly website in the world, but they have a good range of very reasonably priced materials if you're looking for a bargain! I thought the navy and floral print would be nice for spring, but also wouldn't look too spring-like at other times of the year. Plus it fits in perfectly with this week's Project Sewn floral theme, so I'm linking up with the sewalong there.

I hope I'll be wearing it a lot, but I'm not 100% sure - I do really like the dress and I would have worn it this weekend just gone if the weather hadn't intervened (see below), but for some reason the neckline on this one makes it feel slightly more dressy than my usual day dresses so we'll see how it goes. Speaking of necklines, the pattern also includes a lovely sweetheart neckline option (hence the name of the dress, no doubt) as well as this straight neckline that I used - I'll need to try that on another dress at some point.

I'll leave you with an obligatory twirling shot, and a warning not to try to take photos of a full-skirted dress outside in gale-force winds unless you want to be constantly battling with said skirt to avoid the world seeing your underwear!