A Heather dress for winter

This is the Heather dress from Sew Over It, the first completed pattern from my #2017makenine list and my new favourite thing! It's a chic little number, with interesting curved seams (great for colour blocking) and fab oversized pockets. What's not to like?!

Size-wise I cut a size 10, grading out to a size 12 at the bust on the front side panels. The only other changes I made to the pattern were to shorten the hem by two inches and shorten the sleeves by an inch, both of which are standard adjustments for me. The fit is exactly what I was hoping for - it's a reasonably tight fit with just enough ease to make it comfortable to wear. The pockets are really cosy too.

There are no instructions to stabilise the shoulder seams, but I stabilised mine with twill tape to cope with the weight of the dress. All construction steps are illustrated with photos, making this a nice, straight forward sew. The only area where I puzzled for a minute was the pockets. Just remember that you're attaching the pocket bags to the front side seams, not the side seams as you normally would. Once I'd got my head round that, the dress came together very quickly - I think I sewed the whole thing in one afternoon.

Fabric recommendations are for medium weight knits with a low stretch percentage and I used a navy ponte Roma, that Alice at Clothspot very kindly sent me as a gift. They have a few other ponte knits in stock, but this particular shade of navy really called out to me. The weight and drape is perfect for the pattern - it's stable enough to cope with all the curved edges, but doesn't stretch out of shape. I loved working with it, and have already made a second garment from the remnants (coming soon!)

I've sewn with quite a few knit dress patterns over the years and this is by far my favourite. It's soooo comfortable for lounging on the sofa and can easily be dressed up for a night out. I want to wear it every day! I already have plans for a striped version with short sleeves for summer, and at least one more winter version.  What's your favourite knit dress pattern? x

My PDF Shame

This week was the week I checked my long neglected PDF pattern folder. Stay with me please, it's not quite that boring! Now I'll almost always opt for a printed pattern over a PDF version (unless there's no choice of course), so I wasn't expecting to find much. Imagine my surprise when I discovered 25 patterns in there, 25! But the worst thing was that around half of them were completely unused - just purchased in a frenzy and forgotten about forever. I felt especially bad as there are some absolute gems amongst them:

Summer Blouse - Maison Fleur

Anderson Blouse - Sew Over It

Edith Blouse and Dress - Maria Denmark

Maritime Shorts - Grainline

I could go on….

With a paper pattern you have a physical reminder of your purchase, but this doesn't happen with PDFs. And because of the additional time needed to print out and tape them together, it's easy to sweep PDFs aside in favour of a quicker fix. Maybe I need to start printing out the instructions and putting them in envelopes so they're more visible? 

This then got me thinking about what other patterns might be lurking in the shadows in different forms. One area I tend to totally overlook is sewing books. Again, it's a mental block with me - if they're not in a pattern envelope I'm blind to them. This is mad because I've had some real successes with sewing book patterns (see below), and really should make an effort to use them more frequently. 

Anita Tie Top from Sew Over It Vintage

Lace Pencil Skirt from Fashion with Fabric

Whilst we're on the subject, I also have an entire cupboard of sewing magazines with free patterns, maybe I should start perusing those too?! 

Does anybody else completely forget about the PDF patterns they own? Or is it just me?! Perhaps it's time for some kind of pattern inventory to keep them front of mind? If there's a particular reference system that's worked for you, I'd love to know. Thank you! x