Tuesday, 19 April 2016

By Hand London Charlie Dress

A couple of months back Simply Sewing offered a free pattern for a lovely summer dress. I was immediately smitten with the slightly 70's vibe and a close resemblance to one of my favourite green Top Shop dresses circa the early noughties.


I was even happier when I realised the 'Charlie Dress' was a new release from the awesome girls at By Hand London.

Favourite Top Shop RTW from the 2000's
The free pattern came as a two-part piece (bodice pattern and instruction in issue 12 and then instruction for the skirt section and final finish with issue 13).

I decided the Charlie Dress should be made from a patterned gem from the 50% off Liberty Sale purchase in January called Curly Whirly. I started construction of the princess seamed bodice with great enthusiasm and even traced the pattern. I know, get me!

Unfortunately, as sometimes these things go, I didn't get a chance to sew the whole bodice together in one session and it sat in the UFO pile for a quite a while. The next time I had the inclination or energy to continue I realised my notches were not that easy to see and ended up sewing the individual bodice sections together wrong about 4 times.

I finally sewed the bodice together and measured out the quarter circle skirt using the By Hand London circle skirt calculator on their website. I finished the hem with some blue bias-binding I had in my stash.


The bodice had to be adjusted quite a bit to fit me and I am not 100% happy with the princess seam curves - more work needed here if I make another one. I will also probably move the straps further apart to be more in line with a regular bra strap position. I think I will also add some cute patch pockets too as in-seam pockets are not possible due to the quarter circle skirt construction.

Over all I am pretty happy with the dress. I am yet to see whether it will get much wear as the weather is still not quite warm enough for a cotton summer dress.
I will keep you posted if the sun comes out!






Pattern: By Hand London Charlie Dress = Free in Simply Sewing magazine over two volumes = £10
Fabric: Two metres of Liberty Tana Lawn 50% off online sale = £22.00
Gutterman Thread: Blue from stash

Total = £32.00
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

9 comments:

  1. colesworth19 April 2016 at 20:42

    cute! I've been thinking about adding circle skirts (or fractions of circle skirts) onto lots of my bodices lately.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Caroline20 April 2016 at 09:46

      Thanks. This is the first 1/4 circle skirt I have made for myself. Might make another one now!

      Delete
  2. Unknown20 April 2016 at 10:49

    Gosh this is mightily cute! Love it. Great print too, 50% off bargain! I think little patch pockets would really work, or welt pockets?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Caroline20 April 2016 at 11:39

      Thanks Louise. Just hoping for a nice bit of sun to wear it!

      Delete
  3. Fröbelina20 April 2016 at 22:40

    That is a gorgeous fabric! And a gorgeous dress! I haven't seen a single dress made from. this pattern as to yet, and I'm really curious how it looks in you, so I'm hoping the weather gets better soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Caroline21 April 2016 at 12:47

      Thanks Kat. Yes I hope to get some photos with me wearing it soon X

      Delete
  4. Alex7 May 2016 at 01:47

    Looks great Caroline and I really like the fabric. One of my favourite things about sewing is that I can add pockets to my dresses and skirts so totally understand you wanting to do that :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Caroline7 May 2016 at 03:22

      Yes. I need some pockets with this dress for extra practicality factor (and they will look cool too!).

      Delete
    2. Caroline7 May 2016 at 03:23

      Yes. I need some pockets with this dress for extra practicality factor (and they will look cool too!).

      Delete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)