Hey readers - this dress is ridiculous! It has giraffes walking across it. With birds sitting on the giraffes. It's bright blue. It is not the slightest bit sophisticated or RTW. But I love it! :) (I will say, a nice old lady at a hotel told me it looked expensive ;)



I found the fabric while shopping with Ashley at the Needle Shop in Chicago. We were in the throws of the Sew Dolly Clackett challenge and I got crazy and picked out this blue quilting cotton with giraffes, saying, "And wouldn't this be perfect for a dress?!" In fact I would like to blame the entirety of my purchasing this fabric on Ashley's new found obsession with sewing kitschy dresses - it was contagious ;)


This pattern is the By Hand London Anna Dress pattern, made with the boat neck and knee length gathered skirt. That inspiration was straight from Roisin herself! She is always slapping different pattern bodices and skirts together to get 100 different combinations in fun prints and they all look amazing! :) I also added pockets - obviously.


Funny story - this dress was actually half sewn IN A HOTEL ROOM! That's right, I had started it at home - bodice cut out, darts and shoulder seams sewn, but then we had to hit to road! So Archibald got packed up and went along on his first ever road trip! I brought along a little box of sewing supplies, the pattern, and the still uncut fabric for the skirt. Thankfully the hotel had an iron and ironing board, so I was all set! I finished the bodice and lining, improvised a gathered skirt with pockets, put in a zip and hemmed it to be worn the next morning to my sister-in-law's graduation! You can see more of this adventure on my Instagram feed!


Here are the details:

Pattern: By Hand London Anna Dress

Fabric: Quilting Cotton - Blue with Giraffes from the Needle Shop (Chicago) // White Posh Lining - Joanns

Construction Notes:

- This dress is fully lined - great instructions on how to do this in the BHL sewalong post
- I used an invisible zipper down the center back. It's pink, b/c I didn't have any other colors, and it is probably one of the worst (least invisible) I have put in. I think this is mostly to blame on the iron situation - I was a little too safe when flattening out each side of the zipper b/c I didn't want to melt the teeth with a strange iron and be left zipper-less. It's amazing the difference it makes!
- Added side seam pockets with self-fabric



A few other thoughts:

This is my third version of this dress! You can see the first here, and the second here - very different! :)
As much as I DO love this one, the second version is my favorite - the fabric works so well with the pattern! I just love the Anna dress pattern - so flattering :)

One issue I have run into lately is an increase in bust size - I have always measured and made clothes for a 34" bust, now I'm working with 36". I think this is partially due to overall weight gain, but it has definitely thrown me off in making old TNT patterns - you can see that the bust is tighter on this dress than my other two versions. And I'll be honest, it's kind of freaking me out. I've been the same size up there forever, and now to change is very strange. I have been exercising and will soon... very soon... stop eating so many sweets ;)  But really - has anyone else had this happen? How has it affected your sewing?

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY AND READING! :)