The Lisette Sew Along - My Finished Continental Dress

One of the best things that has happened since I've started to make my own clothes, is that I have a much better understanding and appreciation of my body shape, and the fabric colours and styles of clothing that suit me.

Once you take your own measurements, and compare them to what is supposed to be standard in shop bought clothing, you realise why it's so hard to find something that properly fits!

At least with a simple dress like this one, you can make it to the pattern, and then slightly tweak it to suit your own needs.

With that knowledge, I sat down yesterday afternoon and finally sewed my Contintental Dress.

I probably should have ironed it....

I must say that I really love how it's turned out. I've even managed to fall in love with the so called 'test' fabric from the stash. It's so much prettier as a dress, than what it was folded up sitting in the cupboard.



For some silly reason, I didn't think to actually measure myself before I started.... I just assumed that I would need the same size as Bec and so I cut out a size 18.

When I did the first try on, I realised that it was a bit too big, so I measured myself and realised that I should have cut out a 16.

• This is the first try on stage - I've sewn the neck binding but wanted to check the arm holes before sewing the binding.

My photo is a little blurry but if you look at the left arm you can see that it's a bit gapey under the arm.

The really simple solution was just to take in both side seams from under the arms and straight down the side. I started by taking it in to a size 16 along both side seams.

Then to make the armhole smaller, I just sewed a tapered seam about half an inch inwards under the arm.

Note to self: always measure before just assuming size

Once I'd adjusted the size to fit, I added the binding to the arms and hemmed the bottom to finish it off.... nearly

Additions

As I don't have much of a waist, I find that I really need belt loops on my dresses, and then there's also my obsession with always having pockets in my garments.

My super simple non-scientific technique to work out the placement?

I just put the dress on, work out where the belt loop and pockets should sit and mark it with a safety pin.

Then I made myself a little pocket template to make two matching front pockets.

That's it... all finished!

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