Also known as snatching victory from the jaws of defeat!

Last week I picked up 3 metres of this lovely linen (blend?) from Minerva Fabrics.

I’m off to sunny FuertaVentura  in a couple of weeks so I fancied a new sundress as most of my clothes are in storage at the moment following an unsuccessful house purchase (long story, not a very happy one so let’s skate over it).

I decided to remake the sundress from the Japanese pattern book “Feminine Wardrobe”. I made a version a couple of months ago which I love – my review on PatternnReview.com.  However, the book and my pattern pieces are also in storage.  Of course I couldn’t be bothered to go to the storage unit and look through all the boxes until I found them – so I thought I’d redraft it from the dress itself.  Hmmm

I’ve read loads of articles about drafting things yourself from clothes and I’ve even done a sewing course showing how to do this with the wonderful Libby Rose. But something went very wrong. I drafted it out last Sunday – admittedly with a bit of a hangover and with the TV on (I was watching Watchmen from the night before – how did they get that film soooo wrong).  Anyway, I sewed it up in the afternoon and the bodice was dreadful – I couldn’t even fit it over my head. Disaster. I went to bed on Sunday a very unhappy sewer.

But over the week I decided I could save the dress. The body is pretty much an A-line sack so that was going to fit. I still had about a 70cm length of the fabric left so I drafted a new bodice from a pattern I still had at home – from another Japanese pattern book – Simple Chic.

I just traced the pattern from about 5 cm under the arm and stitched onto the original dress from about the same place.

It worked a treat!

This was my first attempt at a self-drafted dress and I'm really happy with it.

It comes about due to a sewing class I took at the beginning of the year - Fashion dressmaking and draping at www.designercourses.co.uk and run by Lena Sentana (www.lenasentana.com).

As part of the course we used dress forms to create our own patterns for a top, a skirt and a dress. This was my final project - and definately the best of the bunch.

I made it in a synthetic green boucle  which is quite lightweight so should be good for the spring which is currently blooming over London!

Making the pattern was pretty straightforward once went through the basics - fitting proved the most difficult part (I still don't think I have the back quite right).  Also I found it hard not having instructions and am not yet experienced enough to know exactly what order to do things in. This means that some of my seams could have been worked out to cover each other a little more slickly - but nothing too detrimental.

Its definately something I'd like to do again, but urban living in London means no room for a dress form so I'm not sure when I'll get the chance again. 

I just don't get these one-arm styles.  They just look unfinished to me.  I'm obviously wrong though - if I am to believe my fashion bible Grazia. They have no fewer than 3 of these tops and dresses advertised in this weeks issue.

This was an easy one - but still took me a few hours last night to finish - mainly because I was tired at the end and kept getting the zip wrong. I managed to sew it too far down, backwards and upside down (not all at the same time) - so had to redo it 3 times.

Finished Simplicity 3835 in blue corduroy