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!