I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore
This one fills me with joy! First, there's the fabric... It's a Liberty Tana Lawn that Ginner gave me as an anniversary present about 8 years ago when I'd first started sewing. I've been saving it for so long and nothing ever seemed to be good enough for it but I finally found the perfect match. Then, there's the fact that this was a buddy sew with my best bitch, Mel! After MONTHS of several cancelled plans to visit each other and do stuff together, we were at last allowed to actually meet up and have a metric crap tonne of fun last week! It was so wonderful to spend time with her and I can't wait to do it again.
So let's get into the sewing.
This is the Davenport dress by Friday Pattern Co. It's a very recent release and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make one. Mel felt the same way so it was clear early on that this would be our buddy sew project for when she came to stay with us. To me, it gives strong peasant dress vibes but Mel thinks it's more 70s style... Whatever it is, it's really cute, easy to fit and easy to wear.
I made a size S and the fit is perfect. However, I would like to lengthen the sleeves next time by about 2 inches. The instructions were good and the construction was really interesting. I really loved how the front yoke comes together and I love the look the tight elastic channel gives the neckline. The waist ties mean the dress is extremely comfortable to wear as well and we also have the added bonus of slash pockets. Man, I really love this dress.
The pattern has a shoulder ruffle as well (shoulder wing, as I like to call it) but I chose to omit mine because I'm not sure it's for me - though I really like it on others. It's a pretty fabric hungry dress as well and the cutting layouts are all single layer so if you want to cut it folded, buy extra fabric. I got mine out of about 2.5m, not single layer because I couldn't be arsed.
One thing to note is that we both thought there was a notch in the wrong place on the sleeves. It seemed to have been about 1 inch off so it wasn't a major problem but easing in the sleeves was a bit of a pain.
Now, the fabric doesn't really need any introductions. Liberty, innit? It's gorgeous. It was easy to sew (yay for cotton!), great for pressing (again, yay for cotton!) and the print is so pretty... It looks quite understated from a distance but from up close it's an explosion of colours. Ginner did good. He picked it himself.
Mel and I actually managed to completely finish our dresses before she left, which I did not expect at all. Particularly since we were out most of Saturday and we also went fabric shopping on Friday afternoon.
Make sure you have a look at Mel's Davenport as well. It's really very pretty.
Blogging might be even more sporadic than usual now since we had a furry addition to our family last week. Delilah is very hard work but she's worth every second and instantly stole all our hearts with her big, green, puppy dog eyes.