Monday 28 July 2014

The Anna 6696 dress

There's something about blue linen as a colour/fabric combination that I just can't seem to resist. This particular pairing works perfectly for summer: it's classic, it's chic and, more importantly, it's cool. I succumbed twice last year with my Anna dress in a linen/rayon mix, closely followed by my Simplicity sundress in linen look cotton…. and I've just succumbed again! 


The fabric I used this time was a linen-cotton blend (55% linen, 45% cotton) from Backstitch. It's one of their new summer dressmaking fabrics and was kindly sent to me by Alice to review. I'd originally planned to use the fabric for a different pattern, but there were too many fit issues involved, and with the school holidays fast approaching, I was rapidly running out of time to fix them. I needed a blue linen dress I could wear in the sunshine. NOW!  As is often the case with me, I saw the perfect dress on Pinterest - a lovely casual, chambray dress with pockets. 


The dress originally featured on this post on lifestyle blog A Cup of Jo and on further investigation I discovered it was the model's own and a few years old to boot. Ah well, I'd just have to make my own version!

I did this by marrying the bodice of the By Hand London Anna dress with the skirt of McCall's 6696 shirt dress. The Anna dress has tucks under the bust rather than a gathered bodice waistline, which I felt would be more flattering to my shape. The skirt and waistband of McCall's 6696 is exactly the right shape, but the pattern is for a shirt dress with buttons up the centre front, so I had to fiddle with the pattern pieces a bit. I cut the front piece on the fold and added a tiny amount of width. I then did the reverse for the back pieces (cutting two pieces instead of one) to allow for a zip. 


The Anna bodice is much more fitted than the McCall's bodice however, and this, coupled with my dreadful maths, meant things didn't quite line up the first time round. A few unorthodox gathers had to be added to the skirt section, but because they're below the waistband, they're actually quite flattering and make the dress really comfortable to wear.  


The only change I made to the bodice from last time was a back neckline adjustment, (thank you Sonja at Ginger Makes for the splendid tutorial!) I also took an identical wedge out of the front bodice. I redrafted the facings, which are cut from some scraps of amazing Liberty fabric that reader Nathalie sent me as part of a bag of offcuts. There were some great pieces in the bag (the facings from my sailor shorts were one), but the real gem was a remnant of Cranford, a fabric designed for Liberty by Grayson Perry a few years ago. 


I LOVE IT and the background just happens to be the exact shade of blue as the linen-cotton. I also used some of the Grayson Perry fabric for the insides of the pockets (but forgot to take photos - soz).

Grayson Perry facings - look at those little faces!

The linen-cotton fabric is excellent quality, but like all linens, it's a bit of a pain to work with as it sheds so many fibres. It's medium weight, which I naively thought would make it less transparent. Not so - I could probably get away with it on holiday, but need to wear a slip with it when walking around London. With hindsight, I should probably have lined or underlined the dress, it's no big tragedy though. I love the finished look of the dress and how close the colour (Moonlight if you're interested) is to the original inspiration photo.


Talking of which, I don't have a flower market nearby to replicate the original image, but I do have the next best thing - an allotment! Unfortunately, I looked hideous in most of the photos we took there, but I'll leave you with a couple of outtakes with my gorgeous Charlie. Despite my best efforts, he flatly refused to pose for a photo!  x

Glamour amongst the cannellini beans

Gotcha!

Fabric was given to me free of charge for review. All views my own.

49 comments:

  1. JANE! This is pretty fly, I have to say. And, nice clogs :)

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    1. Thank you lovely! And I have to say, pink clogs would look good with this dress too! x

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  2. He's darn adorable! and the dress is pretty to! x
    Frankie
    www.knitwits-owls.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Thanks Frankie, I think he's adorable too, but I'm biased! x

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  3. it's lovely and just like the inspiration photo! that colour looks great on you. and charlie is far too big to be called adorable isn't he? so don't tell him i said that!

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    1. He probably is too big but I don't care, he's still my baby! And thank you! x

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  4. summer perfection.. it was so lovely catching up with you yesterday

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    1. Aw you too Rachel, I had a fab afternoon! x

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  5. Your son made me laugh. My baby (nearly 22) is also a reluctant participant in my photos, so don't expect things to change any time soon! Your dress is gorgeous.

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    1. I'm under no illusions, but good to hear anyway! And thank you! x

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  6. Beautiful dress! And you are one cool allotmenteering mama!

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  7. THis is gorgeous. I LOVE the fit and the fabric. I may be coming around to the linen side.

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  8. I LOVE this dress! Amazing :)

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  9. Beautiful dress! Love the whole thing : fabric + style. And the pics with your son are adorable!

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  10. Your dress makes the Pinterest one look lame. Yours is perfection. And your son is so cute in his reluctance.

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  11. Your dress is gorgeous and really suits you, my colouring is quite dark and I think this in a nice bright red is needed in my wardrobe although a bit beyond my skill set at the moment I fear!

    On a side note I would like a bit of advice. I'm new to dressmaking and have made a couple of nice tops in cotton lawn, which is fine as I wear a cami under them. However, I'm thinking of making a nice floaty summer dress in lawn but obviously it would need underlining. My thought would be to just use another layer of plain lawn underneath so both layers are of the same weight, would this work and if not do you have any suggestions on what I should use?

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    1. Hi Emma, yes another layer of similar weight lawn would be ideal for underlining. I've previously underlined with cotton lawn, very fine cotton muslin and silk cotton and all three work well as they're so lightweight. I'm just about to make a summer top with patterned cotton lawn and will probably underline it with plain lawn too. Good luck! x

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    2. Or you can use the plain lawn to make a bias-cut slip to wear with the dress. There are any number of patterns in print for such a slip. If you get wildly ambitious, make the slips in different colors, which will affect how the translucent overdress looks. (I can freely suggest this as I am not the one faced with making multiple bias garments, tra la.) Nothing beats the comfort of a lightweight lawn dress in the hottest days of summer.

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  12. I love the dress. Beautifully done. Such nice blue!

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  13. Wow! This looks so great! It's such a perfect dress!

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  14. Lovely dress! Blue linen is the perfect summer fabric, and the Anna dress (or bodice in this case!) is the perfect summer dress in my book.

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    1. I think the Anna dress is the perfect summer dress too! x

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  15. This is fabulous. And you look great in it!

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  16. Wow, I have to say that I like your dress a good deal more than the inspiration! The skirt and bodice look GREAT together. Great! And those extra gathers look like an intentional design detail, echoing the bust gathers nicely. I spent a good deal of time fitting my Anna bodice so I could do some mashups like this. Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. You're very welcome and thank you for the lovely comment! x

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  17. Love your dress!! I just bought my Anna dress pattern and I loved your version!

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  18. OH. EM. GEE. I have that *exact* dress pinned, and have been looking for patterns to fit it, and then BAM! You've gone and made the most delicious dress! Apologies in advance for how I'm going to the copy the dress right off you xx

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    1. Oh please do, you would totally rock this style! x

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  19. That dress had also caught my eye big time on Pinterest! I must say that your rendition is splendid and it's nice to know I can turn to these two patterns to recreate the look. Thank you!

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    1. I think a lot of people have their eye on that original Pinterest dress. I was describing the dress to some sewing blogger friends at the weekend and they all knew exactly which Pin I was talking about! x

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  20. You can never go wrong with blue! Love both the fabric and the design on you. The shots of your son made me smile, mine just the same too :-)

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  21. Jane! This is a smashing dress! I LOVE LOVE the Anna bodice with the pencil skirt and pockets. Fantastic! The blue linen is such a pretty colour, too!

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  22. Beautiful dress! And I love the photos with your son, what fun, and you match in colour!

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  23. works brilliantly and looks great, love the facings too!

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  24. This is so gorgeous, Jane - great Frankenpatterning! x

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    1. Frankenpatterning! I knew there was a technical term for it! x

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  25. THAT is your colour!! Smashing!

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  26. Gorgeous, this is so perfect for you! Very flattering. And always fun to try and make a dress you really admired elsewhere, I have two or three in mind I need to start like that. :)

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  27. Dear Jane, I read your blog since a year. I don't comment because I don't speak english very well. I love your dresses, especially Anna and Emery. For the moment, I don't have time to sew because of my little child who has the same difficulties than your son. He is 3 years old. I don't understand how find time to sew and I am desperate for that !!! Thanks for your blog ! He give me hope the things go better in few years. Excuse for my bad language.
    Anne

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    1. Hello Anne and thanks for your kind words about my blog. I only learnt to sew when my son started school (when he was four) and that's the only time I sew now. Having a child with special needs is very challenging, especially when they're young, but it really DOES get easier once they're older and able to do more for themselves. Starting school was life changing for our family - my son has made amazing progress since then and his speech has improved dramatically. I'm sure it will be a similar story once your son starts school too. You'll also get more time for yourself, and for your sewing. I do understand how precious sewing time is - that's what keeps me sane! Best of luck to you, it WILL get easier. xxx

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  28. Colour looks great on you! And the dress looks fab. I see your love for blue extends to your children! 😊

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  29. I love this dress, it's perfect in every way! I love the Anna dress, it's such a wearable pattern. Gorgeous photos!

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  30. Goy-jus!!! What a brilliant pattern mash up ( sorry that sounds like it was accidental, but it was clearly carefully thought through and the work of a sewing genius !) love the plain linen in blue- totally suits you and looks like the perfect summer holiday dress. And love your allotment shots!!

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  31. I can see why you keep going back to blue, the color is gorgeous on you, lovely dress.

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  32. I used something very like this lovely (French blue? Wedgewood blue?) linen/cotton blend to make some very full slacks and a jacket-worn-as blouse; and had enough scraps to eke out a lining for a vest/waistcoat. This fabric is a lot like chambray except that warp and weft threads are the same color.) It looks to behave like chambray, came out of the wash beautifully, is soft and delightful to wear. Nice to see your Charlie, good on you for catching him with his dimples showing!

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  33. Love the pattern hack. The Anna bodice is rather lovely when you can get it to fit. Going to have a look at the Ginger Makes tutorial. Thanks for the heads up. :)

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  34. I am loving that fabric you used for the facing, I have just spent a lovely half hour too reading a 'cup of Jo's blog" you have some great links in this post!
    bestest d x

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  35. Everything about this suits you so well!

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  36. Love this dress and you look fabulous in it! (nice shoes!!). Bethx

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