The Old Fashioned Way: Stripes and Floral

Friends, I've gone and done a Dolly Clackett.

Like our stylish friend Roisin, I have become slightly obsessed with one pattern, and have made my third Hawthorn (I'm not quite in her league though as she's made about 70 Anna dresses- a poor man's Dolly if you will!).

You'll be relieved to hear I have made significant changes this time so it doesn't look too much like my previous two Hawthorns (here and here). I was inspired by Sew Over It's Doris Dress which I thought had similar darts and skirt style to the Hawthorn. I'd already got the fit I liked on the Colette pattern so thought I'd just hack it to turn it into a Doris replica.

I lowered the neckline by about and inch and did away with that sweet little collar. I cut both the front and back panel on the fold so was left with no button plackett on the front skirt piece. To construct this I sewed the bodice first, made the buttonholes, then tacked the bodice together at the waist and attached it to the skirt. Only 5 buttonholes, yay! And no zip as it's loose enough to fit over my head- a winner in my book.

I used the sleeves from the Hawthorn pattern too but made them much much shorter. I'd taken out some fabric from the armhole last time round as they were too restrictive so the sleeve didn't fit perfectly. Fine by me, I wanted little tiny pleats in the sleeve head anyway!

The sleeves are still tight though. If lift my arms up or stretch them outward it's pretty tight and cuts into my arm. I'm not sure if this is because my guns are sooo muscular or just something that happens with me and Colette patterns. I've had the same problem with other Colette patterns. I'm not really sure how to fix this problem, my next solution is to add some ease in the middle of the sleeve. Will this work? OOh the suspense! Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome.

Here you can see how lifting my arms raises the whole bodice

Sleeve cutting into the guns!

While this dress fits some of my criteria for dresses- loose enough to be only mildly sweaty in 30+degree weather, circle skirt, vintage-y feel- I really don't love it. I'm not sure why though. When I bought this fabric in Goldhawk road I thought it was really unusual and pretty and it feels amazing, so soft and cottony. But I think maybe something about it doesn't work with this dress, perhaps it was asking to be a shirt instead? You'd think florals and stripes would work nicely, I mean just take a look at Tilly's latest Coco, but here I'm not so sure it does. The pretty little daffodils just kind of get lost. Ah well.

Some vintage buttons I found in my stash- I thought they matched those daffs nicely.

I finished the insides with the old overlocker, and attached bias binding to the hem before turning and hemming. I like this little trick for hemming circle skirts, although, yes, you have to sew twice, you get a really neat finish and you don't have to faff around with measuring or worrying about wonky hems.