Simplicity 2917 Dress – Poppies

Back to my old favourite pattern for this one. Now that I’ve made this pattern a few times, I felt confident to cut into this gorgeous fabric that I have been saving.

I saw this fabric at the Sewing for Pleasure show in Birmingham in March and immediately knew that I wanted to make this dress with it. I could just picture it in my head and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. I decided to line it as the fabric was very thin, so firstly I made the dress in a light polyester lining fabric. I then made the dress, and attached the lining at the neck and armholes. The only problem with this method of joining the lining is that you can’t understitch, so to me, the lining just peeks over the top of the dress slightly. Not enough to look unsightly but I do prefer to understitch.

I was worried I wouldn’t have enough fabric but in the end had plenty and could have made it slightly longer, which was what I’d imagined. Being short though, it is probably about the right length on me. I finished it the night before we were due to fly to Germany to join our River Cruise and as I wanted to wear it to the gala dinner night, I was pleased to get it completed in time.