Handmade Dress

My nana is one of the most influential women in my life. She worked as an Upholsteress at Uptons, and used to make clothes for not only herself, but also for her mum, her sister and her aunt. I learned how to bake from her, how to knit from her (with a help from youtube) and now I'm learning how to create and alter clothes from her.

When I saw this dress on the Topshop website, I fell in love. I thought it was a bit short, but I loved the print and it's just my sort of dress. But it's 55£.

I showed my mum, wondering if there was any way I could have this dress, to which she turned around and said, "Your nana'll have a pattern like that."

I was almost straight up to my nana's and scrounging through her pattern bag. Low and behold I found a pattern! It was bought in 1956 for six shillings. It's a Simplicity pattern and it really was simple and easy to follow.

Next was a trip to Boyes. Now I was shocked to find that Boyes shops do not in fact cover the entire of the UK - like how do you all get along without this amazing shop. For those of you not in the know, Boyes is a very cheap shop that quite literally sells everything. There are two floors, the bottom sells everything from school uniforms, to toys, to birthday cards, to kitchen supplies, gardening supplies, hair dye and makeup and just everything. The upstairs is the haberdashery, and you can buy curtains, clothes, wool, fabric and all your clothes making needs.

I bought this beautiful 100% cotton fabric for £4.25 a metre, and I needed 3.5 yards (3.2 metres). So my dress, including the zip cost me £14.

I spent three days out of the next week at my nana's and in total it took about 6 hours to create my dress. First I got the pattern pieces cut (we had to botch together a top from another pattern as the top was missing from the pattern I'd chosen). and got the top together. Then I got the top completely fitted and sewn and interfaced, before making the skirt and gathering the waist band, and in the final session I joined the top to the skirt. All under the watchful eyes of my nana.

And here it is. It's longer than the dress in the picture, hitting just on my knee, and I'm very happy that I chose a dark fabric, as it means I can wear it with tights and boots, but the floral print means it will transfer very easy to summer.

I love this dress. It's so insanely comfortable, because it's made just for me. 

It's also a huge incentive to stay at the size I am now! Best thing though, it fits at the waist and flares from my natural waist, meaning that my big bum and hips and thighs are nicely hidden and even if I manage to lose weight and shrink my arse area, it won't affect the fit of this dress :).

And here's me in it, looking all serious.