After my success with Maria Denmark’s free Kimono tee pattern I thought I’d give another of her patterns a try. I’d been eyeing up the Edith dress and blouse for a while:

For the dress I used the lemon fabric I bagged at the SewBrum meet up swap, originally from Louise over at Not Sew Simple. I’d been wondering what to use it for, it shouted out strappy sun dress but the opportunities to wear one in the UK are few and far between so a shirtdress seemed the perfect compromise.

The pattern is available in two sizes; for a B and C cup. I chose the C cup and cut a size 44. One thing to note is that Maria’s patterns don’t include seam allowances. I added a 1.5cm SA around the main pattern pieces and 1cm on the collar and facings. It was surprisingly quick to put together, I didn’t use my overlocker but French seamed throughout. I added side seam pockets but placed them quite low below the hips so as not to interfere with the line of the dress. I also tapered the end of the shoulders down by a centimetre, my shoulders are quite broad so I wanted to reduce the emphasis a little. (These pictures were taken on a massive photo catch up session btw, the dress was the last item and things had got a little silly by then!)

I like the finished dress, it’s very comfortable, especially without having any restrictions around the waist. I’m not sure that the yellow works next to my pale skin but it looks great paired with my green Miette cardigan which seems to tone down the yellow and highlights the green in the fabric.

The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern was the round collar, but this is purely down to my school summer uniform which consisted of a Boater and a really unflattering shirt dress. It was designed in the early seventies, so wearing it in the eighties was more than a little outdated. The fabric was horrible, it had a circle skirt which took off with every slight breath of wind, exposing navy polyester knickers for all to see. It also had a huge round seventies collar, every time I see one now I get flashbacks!

Anyway, I’d had a metre and a half of pale blue gingham cotton in my stash for a couple of years. I bought it specifically to make a blouse but never got around to it. The blouse uses very little fabric and I was easily able to squeeze it out of just over a metre. For this version I decided to square the collar off but otherwise made it up as the dress. One of the great things about this pattern is the amount of darts which give it a lovely shape. There are fisheye darts front and back, bust darts and back shoulder darts. The fit is really good with plenty of room in the bust so no need for a FBA. I finished it off with some vintage buttons I’d had in my stash for ages. The fabric doesn’t photograph very well but it’s a nice little everyday blouse (I could have done with running an iron over both of these before the photos!)

Next time I’ll lower the bust and back darts by an inch, (a short waist and droopy boob adjustment) take the plunge and cut into some precious Liberty! (to be continued…..)