Hawthorn Dress

This was supposed to be posted about a week and a half ago.  I even had most of this post already written, and then I ran out of thread when I was topstitching!  But I'm getting ahead of myself; let's start at the start.

This dress is the Colette Patterns Hawthorn dress, I've loved this pattern since it was released, but what I don't love is the fit on the first one I made.  That busy fabric print hides a multitude of sins!  I'd been planning to make another one for ages, and when I dug out my pattern I nearly passed out when I saw all the alternations that Past Me had noted to make on the next one.  So I drafted my own version from my block.

 

I re-drafted the bodice and used the skirt pieces from the pattern.  The only changes that I made were to make a separate placket for the skirt, and to draft a 5/8" seam allowance on the bodice neckline and front.  The original pattern has 1/4" seam allowance there, and I remember having a bit of trouble with it on the first one.
  

 

As you can see, this one doesn't have the Peter Pan collar.  I spotted this lovely version by Marie, and that's what inspired me.  Marie is the queen of Hawthorns by the way, she's made so many lovely versions.

My fabric is some cotton sateen from ebay, and was only £3.99 per metre and 145cm wide.  I bought two metres, then kicked myself for not buying three so I could have made sleeves.  I didn't think that the print would need to be matched, but it turned out that it did.  Two and a half hours later, and with sore knees, I finally finished cutting it out.  Oh, and everything had to be cut on a single layer...

 

I used some cotton lawn for the facings as I thought the sateen would be too thick on the buttonholes, and the buttons are from The Spinning Wheel in Belfast.  I also used bias tape to face the armholes.  After a bit of practising on a fabric scrap, I used the triple stitch for the top stitching, and am pleased with how it turned out.

 

It went together without a hitch, until the aforementioned running out of thread on the top stitching.  That was two Saturday evenings ago.  I made an Emergency Thread Dash (because that's a bona fide thing in my house) to Dunelm Mill on the Sunday afternoon, but they didn't have the colour I wanted, so I had to order it on ebay.  I didn't get the thread until Thursday because we had no post on Tuesday as it was St Patrick's Day, and then I went to visit Friend in England on Friday where I had a brilliant time.  Fabric purchases were made, but I'll share them another time.  

 

I have to thank everybody who suggested recycling the skirt on my Sureau of doom.  I think I'm going to make Tilly's Delphine skirt with it, and maybe put a trim beneath the waistband to brighten it up a bit.  I'm so glad I'd just chucked the dress in the corner of the sewing room, and not in the bin!

Lynne