A Grey Ikat Grace Dress for Sewing Made Simple Magazine
Happy April folks!
Another dress to show you today, which I’ve been excited to blog about for a while.
Those of you who follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram may have already seen that I recently wrote a piece for Sewing Made Simple magazine, reviewing my experience of Sew Over It‘s online class to make the very gorgeous Grace dress. And this is she!
I used a lovely soft drapey cotton from the Sew Over It shop in a black and grey Ikat pattern. I am obsessed with any kind of geometric patterned fabric, so knew I wanted to use this as soon as I saw it. It was a little bit tricky to use to start with because although the pattern looks as though it is all straight lines, it did have a degree of randomness about it. So when I was cutting out pattern pieces, I kept having to move/adjust because it looked as though I was going all wonky…! But I wasn’t. I just tried to keep looking to the grainline in the fabric to keep me on the straight and narrow 😉
This was the second Sew Over It dress I have made (first dress is a Vintage Shirt Dress – soon to appear on the blog!). I loved the pattern and instructions were super clear. No head-scratching moments of confusion – just pure dressmaking joy and happiness!
And the Grace dress online class… well, what a revelation.! Lisa Comfort presents the videos, and gently walks through each step of assembling the dress. It doesn’t assume any dressmaking knowledge – though would be equally fantastic for anyone with beginner dressmaking skills wanting to have a little bit of a refresher and be guided through making a dress, step-by-step. Anyone reading this toying with the idea of trying dressmaking – I urge you to try this class! If I’m honest, I kind of wish that I had done this when I first thought about getting into dressmaking.
I am a big fan of gadgets and tech, so this online class for me kind of feels like the way forward for learning the skill.
Anyway, back to the dress! The fabric was lovely to sew, and is SO comfortable to wear. I am sometimes a bit mixed about pockets on dresses. Mostly because I feel as though they can occasionally add to my hips (please no). But the casual, relaxed style of this dress begs for pockets!
I will definitely be keeping Grace Dress filed in my ‘Make more of these!’ pattern box. A perfect style for relaxing in at the weekend, or for dressing up with accessories for dinner out.
Check out my review of the online class in Sewing Made Simple Issue 4.
Pattern: Grace Dress by Sew Over It
Fabric: Sew Over It
Size made: 8
