My latest make is a second version of the Lottie dress I made back in December. Aside from wanting a loose-fitting dress to wear out for drinks, I’m also trying to use patterns more than once, to improve my skills and to gain confidence in my ability.

The fabric

The grey and pink polka-dot viscosey-crepey fabric was fairly easy to work with. It had a little stretch, though nothing unmanageable, but I did find that it creased a LOT, making cutting and pinning slightly difficult. It also frayed quite badly – not fun after previously sewing with a ponte roma fabric. I was extra careful to edge all seams, which meant this version took a bit longer than my first Lottie dress.

The pattern

As with the previous iteration of this dress, the pattern was easy to follow. I struggled with the binding at the collar again. I had wanted to keep it as a stand up collar as with the stripey version, but I couldn’t manage to stop the seam allowance from showing, so decided to follow the pattern and turn the collar under, and topstitch it in place. It was quite difficult to sew with such a narrow allowance, but I think it just about works.

The process

Despite moaning about having to edge the seams, this all came together pretty quickly. The advice to use the same pattern a few times really does make sense; I was far more confident the second time around despite having a slightly more difficult fabric.

I even adapted the pattern ever so slightly. I made the neck a little higher than the pattern suggests. To do this I simply cut the neckline higher than it is on the pattern piece. Once I had stitched the front and back together, I carefully measured the circumference of the neckline and adjusted the binding to match. And that was it – the binding fit perfectly! I think I could have cut the binding a little wider to help sew the curve of the neckline (it is a little wobbly in places), but that was more of a problem with my handling of the material, rather than the pattern hack.

I’ve already worn the dress out once with black tights and heeled boots (it’s perfect for hiding the post-Christmas bulge), and think it will work just as well in summer with sandals and (hopefully) tanned legs. All-in-all, a successful make. Though I think I’ll be sticking with easier fabrics for the next few projects…