This is your reminder that making a toile is always worth it!
I had the Tint of Mint Amber Dress sat in my Instagram saved folder since it released a few weeks ago and knew I wanted to have a go at sewing it up. I got this super cute, vintage-inspired floral linen in to the shop and thought it would be the perfect match!
I absolutely love this fabric, and thought it would be perfect for a wearable toile of the dress (all being well)!
The dress features a milk maid style upper bodice, gathered in with a tie, a fitted lower bodice and a panelled skirt.
The dress itself only took me about 4 hours to sew- the instructions also come with a link to a Youtube sew-along that I found really useful as some of the instructions I found to be a little unclear. The pattern pieces also don't clearly state how many of each to cut out (in my opinion) so I'd definitely recommend taking some time to carefully lay these out. Overall, I was really happy with the initial dress but I had a few changes I wanted to make:
-the dress features strips of elastic across the back that you stretch as you sew to gather in the panel. I found this to be overly fiddly and I made mine a bit too tight. The instructions unfortunately don't have a guide on what length these should be so it's a bit of guess work.
-the side zip is difficult to insert correctly because of all the elastic at the back so I wasn't happy with the finish.
-the shape of the skirt is pretty, but I always find a gathered skirt more flattering on me.
Queue version number 2- and this one is a dream...
This reminds me why it's so important to practice a new pattern first. It's very rare that the fit is spot on for me straight out the packet, and with all these changes I can honestly say this dress is perfection! To get the fit perfect I:
-extended the bodice pieces by 1.5cm in length
-shirred the full back bodice and omitted the zip- this makes is SO much comfier!
-doubled the width of all the skirt panels to allow me to gather it in
-doubled the width of the straps to make them wider and attached a strap to both the front and back bodice to allow me to tie them in a bow
This is one of those makes that goes to show how incredible it can be to support Indie pattern designers. This dress feels so on trend and it was so worth taking the time to research a new pattern brand.
Lots of love
Brogan
xoxo