Birthday dress

Well I had planned to make linen pants but instead I decided I needed desperately, to make a maxi dress for my birthday lunch, I became obsessed. I hope I'm not the only one who does this. I have been wanting to try Butterick 5456 for ages, Fast and easy, no problems, well not many.

I had some lovely cotton jersey from Tessuti that was in my stash, so off I went. I thought it's stretch I won't make any adjustments plus I was in a hurry. I keep forgetting I'm not young and slim and patterns fit straight out of the envelope.

It was very easy to sew and turned out well except for the bust . It pulled forward, I should have done a FBA but I was too lazy and in too much of a hurry.

As you can see it pulls forward. I added a strip across the bottom of the arm opening which meant I could wear it comfortably. A new design feature, right! To be honest I'm not sure how to do a FBA on this type of bodice that has no darts or anything to gauge the adjustments by. If anyone can help I would really appreciate the help.  Its fine, not great but fine and comfortable. No one else would notice, I don't think, I just need to keep my arms down. Plus I love the look of a maxi dress.

The back is what I love about this pattern. A bit of skin but appropriate. I love the maxi dress cool , comfortable and covers my legs.
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I'm not sure if I will make this pattern again but I will definitely be making more maxi dresses. A good summer dress though.

A beautiful place to have my birthday lunch.

                                       Happy Sewing!

Jumping into January or not.

My blogging has been a bit slow this January, usually I'm quite prolific in January. I have been sewing, I just haven't taken any photos to blog about yet. Although my sewing has been a little sparse. I have been trying to finish projects from last year.
 I don't know why my sewing mojo has been struggling, all I can think is that last year was a difficult year at work, plus I had a few quite serious health issues and all I needed to do this January was  rest and recovery.
Now I'm ready to jump into January, even though its nearly over. A  found a gap in my summer wardrobe, linen pants. Every summer I think this and I never get around to making linen pants, so this summer I'm going to do it.
I have loads of linen

this is just a few. So if I can find a pattern that suits I think I could whip these up quite quickly. I looked through my pattern and found these

plus the Tessa pant from Style Arc

I think I will try the Tessa pant first. Some of the other patterns are quite wide and I do have to be careful with width, because I can look a little swamped by fabric. I am quite excited to be sewing these. This is how I will spending Australia Day ( I hope ).

                             Happy Sewing and Happy Australia Day to all the Aussies out there.