Double the Fun!

Heya All,

I absolutely can’t believe I’ve made another Anna dress. I had made peace with the fact that I wasn’t going to be entering IPM this year and now I’ve managed two makes. Yay!

This is my second version of the Anna dress by By Hand London. This time I worked directly with the pattern rather than the gathered skirt hack I did on the last one.

I bought this great fabric as a bolt end 4m with no special plans for it but then when I decided to make the maxi length version I wondered if I could squeeze it out. (The pattern calls for 4.5-5m).

This pattern has a border print which I didn’t realise until I unwrapped it properly so I had to lay the pattern across the fabric. This worked in my favour but I couldn’t fit the full skirt panels onto the fabric (they were a good few inches too long). Looking at the skirt pieces I figured this was a risk I was willing to take. The pattern doesn’t say what height the dress is drafted for but I’m about 170cm and as you can see it’s still full length on me so definitely drafted for a taller person.

I went for the V neck version and didn’t do the split. One point of a beautiful summer maxi dress is surely the ‘I haven’t shaved my legs’ factor that it provides, right??

I flagged the facings and bias bound the neck line and I also sized down but did a narrower seam on the bodice part. I think this worked. I used a zip I had in my stash which isn’t perfect but I am trying to use my stash and I wanted to start and finish it this morning, so it was a compromise I was prepared to make.

Thanks to IPM and the super Anna dress I now have two new dresses in my wardrobe which I love!

I’m thinking of wearing the succulents one on Monday as I’m contributing to one of my final lectures. The red Anna is going to get an outing for a wedding at the beginning of November.

It’s been such a pleasure watching the makes roll in and I’ve so enjoyed reading about the sponsors as well. Thanks to all the sponsors for making this such a great month. I’ve definitely got some new patterns on my must make list.

Here’s to a bumper crop of new sewing projects!

May your scissors be sharp and your sneaky sewing time uninterrupted 😉

Miriam x