Bedsheet fashion

Hi everyone,
Thank you so so much for all of your entries in to my bloggiversary giveaway. I had over 100 entries, which was really exciting! Anyway, the winner is @ceri.luna over on instagram. She wins 2 metres of Cotton Lawn from Sew Me Sunshine and pin badge from Pink Coat Club!
Now, this week’s blog post! Moving house has meant that I’ve had a bit of a Sewing stash cull. I’ve done quite a bit of clearing out and been quite firm with myself about what I will realistically make. It has made me be quite specific in my planning and I’m quite enjoying it.
Today’s make is Mccalls 7314, made with red and black checked brushed cotton, which was a bed sheet I bought from a charity shop (still in it’s packaging) and I knew I wanted a shirt dress straight away. It just looked so autumnal. The pattern has caught my eye quite a few times and although there’s quite a few indie companies with lovely shirt dresses, the fact that this was made for differing cup sizes did it for me. I could picture the kind of dress that I wanted and this was perfect.

I toiled the dress in a viscose and found that the darts and waistline sat way too high for me, so I have lengthened the bodice by about 3 inches. I made view D with the quarter length sleeves and cuffs. I included the pockets but made no other changes. It has a full collar and a really gathered skirt but quite a relaxed fit.
I’m really enjoying making some more complicated garments. I feel perfecting the collar and collar stand of shirts and shirt dresses is definitely a skill I need to keep working on. I have a few more shirt dresses in mind too as they are perfect for work.
I wore this to a Spice Girls exhibition in Manchester with my sister. I broke my personal fashion rule number 1 – “You should not wear tights if there is an R in the month” but it’s cold in England suddenly and this Autumnal dress definitely called for tights.

Next week’s post is my Sewing the Scene entry, so look out for that!