Butterick B5216 A & B

Butterick B5216 A & B

Fast Easy sewing with cotton.

Following on from the tricky silk party dress I decided to take a step back into the fast and easy pattern world and stick to a reliable cotton fabric.

I chose the Butterick B5216 pattern because I loved the variety of tops it offered. I also thought that with them being so simple it would be easy to adapt the straps to make them a bit different.

Mandors had a great stock of cotton liberty fabrics, so the only problem was not buying too many! I decided on four fabrics to make version B 3 times and one of version A. Instead of using fabric for the straps I bought some ribbons which matched my chosen fabrics, and some buttons just to add a wee bit more detail to them.

This definitely was a fast and easy pattern, especially since I wasn't doing the straps, so it was great for getting my confidence levels up and for making lots of wee summer tops quickly.

simplicity 2362 Maxi dresses

Simplicity 2362 

Liberty Fabric Maxi Dresses

I am a big fan of the maxi dress, however, I am a bit of a strange shape, a bit top heavy I guess. I found that when I tried them on in stores I had to go fora much bigger size than I do for any other clothes if I wanted to stop myself pouring out the top of them. This also resulted in them not fitting well below the bust and me feeling like I was wearing a bin bag. Obviously the only way for me to get a maxi dress  I was comfortable in was to make my own.

I selected the simplicity 2362 pattern as I liked the variety of tops you can have to the dress and really liked the idea of having pockets. I'm a big fan of pockets - they provide somewhere to put your hands when awkwardly standing for a holiday snap!

I decided to go for styles C and E, only I made E the same length as C. I cut the pattern a size up from what I usually use in preparation for the awkward maxi dress and for the first time used my dress making dummy for more than just taking photographs of what I've made. I took my measurements and adjusted my dummy to fit and get started.