Completed: The Air Hostess Megan Dress

Hello everyone!

Today I present to you the Megan dress from Tilly and the Buttons' 'Love at First Stitch'. I've just finished it and have thrown it on straightaway for photos, even though the light isn't great for it today, as I'm really pleased with how it's turned out! In fact, I should really have finished this sooner as it was a pretty easy make and Tilly's instructions and key skill workshops were really easy to follow. I've called it the 'Air Hostess' dress as the bird motifs on the African wax print design remind me of logos for airline companies, and the 60s-style shape of the dress would not have looked amiss as an air-hostess uniform. The fabric is from Simply Fabrics in Brixton.

I made this up in a straight size 4 (Tilly's sizing is unique to the book and is about making sure you follow your own measurements properly and don't just follow your usual RTW size) and didn't make any fitting alterations at all, mainly out of laziness. The fit seems pretty decent (although I confess I didn't prewash the fabric, so who knows what it'll be like after I've laundered it...), but the skirt billows out over my stomach a little (see photo below) without nipping in at my natural waist so I think I could either take this in for an all-round closer fit, or maybe next time make the bodice a bit longer next time so that it makes a bit more of my natural shape. 

 I decided to go for a lapped zip instead of an invisible zip for this dress, again a little bit out of laziness as I only had a black standard zip to hand and still don't have the confidence that my invisible zips will actually be invisible! This is the first lapped zip I've ever done so at least I get new skills points. I followed the 'masterclass' from the Great British Sewing Bee Book 2 for this, and I think it's turned out pretty well, I just need to attach a hook and eye to the top for a neater finish.

I also topstitched the neckline as I used the same really stiff interfacing that I used for my Sweetheart dress and it just refused to be understitched. I think I did a pretty decent job even if it makes for a slightly less clean finish.

I really enjoyed making this dress, even if it took me a lot longer than it should as I was distracted with other things- like making preparations to move house next week! I can see this easily becoming a summer wardrobe staple for and I'm pretty proud of how I lined up the bird motifs- they're more or less balanced on the front and I have a central bird on each sleeve (these are my second attempt at set-in sleeves and I think they've turned out really well, and are such a cute shape). The back print is a little less matched up, but it doesn't look too out of place in my opinion, although it would have been nicer if I could have kept the central seam bird motifs whole. Below is the best photo of the dress itself, just don't look too closely at my face as I have zombie-like half-closed eyes!

 Do you like my new blog design by the way? While the previous 'dynamic view' design was clean and easy to read I felt it lacked personality, so I decided to revert to a classic template, bring in some type-writerly and old-school print fonts and some lovely otters from the end papers of Ring of Bright Water to make it feel a bit more 'me'.

I can't promise I'll be making anything for a while as I'll be up to my ears getting settled in my new flat, but I don't think I'll be able to hold off for top long as I'll finally be getting my hands on the lovely Bernina from Manchester that I've been craving all this time, as well as the vintage patterns. I'm not sure when I'll have internet again though!

Until next time,

NorseOtter xxx