da doo Wren Wren Wren, da doo Wren Wren

(First I made a terrible pun and now that song is stuck in your head. I do apologise.)

In my tea dress post I mentioned that I had to delay making that dress because of unwashed fabric, but since I had the urge to sew something RIGHT NOW, DAMMIT, I made a different dress instead.

Wren, version 1, mark 2. (I made this in December and I realise that it's now February, but I wanted to get all the October projects posted first and taking photos in winter is hard work.)

I liked the shape of my previous Wren, but I'd been wanting to make a long-sleeved (and less 80s) one that I could get more wear out of. I'd bought this charcoal jersey a few months ago, intending to make a Coco Chanel-style knit dress (from that damn Little Black Dress book which left me awash in fabric with no matching pattern when I threw it away), and had reimagined it as a Wren almost as soon as I finished Wren mark 1. I'd been holding off on making it because another blogger had promised to share her fitting adjustments and I thought they might cover the problems I had with my first one. But then she didn't, so I decided to just tackle it myself.

This was my second attempt at a full bust adjustment. For my first one I'd used two step-by-step tutorials working on the exact pattern I was making, one from the pattern's creator and one from a specialist in adjustments for curves. For this one, I used a couple of diagrams from a tutorial working on a pattern that sort of had the same kind of bodice shape maybe if you squint. So it was a bit sloppy.

I should have sized down the bodice before I made the adjustment, but I didn't, so I had to take the shoulders up and the sides in at the end. Also I hadn't touched this jersey for a while and my memory was of it being a lot thicker and less stretchy than it actually was, so I didn't need the ease I'd allowed.

I kept the same larger-sized skirt as in my first Wren, but I took the waist in a bit more, omitted the elastic and took the hem up a couple of inches (well, actually, what I did first of all was sew the skirt on inside out because I am really very smart indeed). The sleeve is the Moneta sleeve - I do have the Wren sleeves but I am still lacking a way to print PDFs, so I assumed that the Moneta sleeve would probably have a similar shape and not cause me too many problems (it did not, it was fine).

(I'm taking a burlesque class at the moment. It remains to be seen whether it will help take the awkward out of some of these photos.)

I've already worn this dress more than anything else I've ever made. I love it. It's comfortable and completely non-restrictive, the wrap front stays in place through a whole night's dancing, and people who also sew haven't realised I've made it, including a dressmaking teacher I was taking a class with. I will definitely be making more, once I find some jersey of a similar weight to this one.

Finally, here's me throwing a hat into the air.

Modelling tips!