Friday 30 October 2015

Unnecessary October Dress Pattern Haul

Earlier this month I got a bit of sewing block. I had loads of patterns and a cupboard full of fabric, but I couldn't find any matches. I went out and bought more fabric to make a specific dress, then couldn't convince myself to get on and do it. I was uninspired.

So I did what any normal person would do. I went online and bought a bunch of unnecessary dress patterns. Then a few days later I went online again and bought a couple more. Within the space of a week I bought five.


(Excuse the terrible photo.)


Cake Patterns Tiramisu dress

This one had several things going for it. One, I did actually have a fabric I thought might work for this dress. Two, the sizing is determined by high bust and cup size, not just full bust measurement, so there was a better chance it would fit my FFs without gaping massively around the neck and shoulders. Three, it was named like a pudding and that delighted my simple soul.

Colette Patterns Moneta dress

This one I bought partly because it looked like a great dress for everyday wear and I want to be able to wear my stuff more often, but mostly because I've been dying to support Colette. Colette as a business seems to do everything right. They have a wide sizing range, they use genuinely diverse models, they're clearly engaged with their customers, their blog is incredibly useful and insightful, and they periodically release cheaper PDF-only quick projects which I would be ALL OVER if it weren't so difficult to print things right now (when I find a way to make it less difficult, I will be ALL OVER the Seamwork patterns). Problem is, a lot of the stuff in their regular pattern line either really isn't me at all or is basic enough to be very close to something I already have. I'd been going back and forth on the Moneta for ages and finally put it in my cart after looking at a ton of women wearing very flattering versions of it on Flickr.

Sewaholic Cambie dress

This is totally not the time of year to be buying a dress like this, I know that. As a result it will probably be the last of these patterns to get made up. But it's so pretty!

And then, a week later...

Colette Patterns Wren dress

...Colette released a wrap-front dress and offered a free long sleeve pattern for everyone who bought it in the first week. So I did. I'm a bit worried that one version will be too clingy and the other will have too much volume in it, but I really want to support a company that gets its practices so consistently right and I'm on a wrap-front dress kick.

By Hand London Elisalex dress

Since I was already buying something, I thought I might as well get something else to get better value out of the delivery charge. I've seen By Hand London dresses all over the place (though most of them were Annas, which is now PDF only and printing is a pain in the bum) and I thought I'd like to try one. Out of the ones Sewbox still had as paper patterns, I thought the Elisalex looked most like something I would wear. In at the waist, out at the hips, what's not to like?

Of course, having bought all these, we run into the problem of not actually having any appropriate fabric for them, which means buying more fabric even though my cupboard is already too full to fit everything in. So I'm going to try a "one in, two out" policy until everything fits in my cupboard with a bit of space left over.

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