I made a dress...for me!

I'm seriously excited (as mentioned in the vlog post yesterday) to show off the new dress I made for myself. It's the first time I have tried anything so complex, and I'm so pleased that I took the time to treat myself.
I love how it turned out. I used a vintage pattern Butterick 4835 which just happened to be my size, win!I was motivated, partly because I had some time up my sleeve whist Emma was on holidays at the farm, and partly through the frustration of not being able to find anything in stores that I liked and suited me. So when I came home from a visit to some pretty boutiques last week, I dove into my pattern stash with the intention of creating something great!

The hardest part was finding the right fabric in my vintage stash. It's ironic, I probably have hundreds of meters but it was hard to find something suitable, for the following reasons:
-width + length, vintage fabrics are narrow so you need quite a lot for a dress length (about 3m) which is not always possible when you buy thrifted pieces.
-stains, I had my heart set on a couple of beautiful prints but they had stains from age/rust/water damage that I just couldn't cut around.
-fear, the fact is a couple of super special fabrics were too good to cut into for a first attempt, if I stuffed up I couldn't just nick down to the shop for some more.

So I rummaged and found a ton of this chambray (which I'd forgotten I had) in a suitcase. I thought the red contrast would make it extra special, which I think it has.
See how neat the collar and top stitching is? And did I mention it has pockets? I love a dress with pockets.
I took extra special care, and even basted where the pattern told me to. I never baste or hardly even use pins, so this was like sewing 101.
The only part I did modify were the sleeves. If you follow me on instagram (@mypoppetshop) you would have seen a stage by stage update including the original sleeves. But they looked a bit star trekkie on, so I decided to give them the flick and just drafted some simple facing pieces for the sleeves.
No other adjustments were necessary. I look forward to making this pattern in another fabric really soon.

So what do you think? Do you love it? Say you love it. I love it!

Oh and because I'm avoiding doing my bookkeeping, I made a matching dress for Perty too. Tune in tomorrow to see how cute it turned out.