FO: Sureau Dress

I hope that everybody had a lovely Easter weekend. We had a really great time, we saw both of our families, amassed an enormous pile of chocolate which I will be rationing out over at least the next few weeks, met my MILs new puppy and I even found some time for a bit of sewing.

 

I'd long had my eye on a few of the patterns from French designer Deer and Doe and I finally decided to drop some of my Christmas money on two of their patterns, Sureau and Belladone. Because it's still not entirely warm yet and because it looked really simple I used the long weekend to sew up a Sureau.

I honestly would totally recommend this pattern, it came together really quickly and the only problems I encountered were entirely due to my own stupidity. My sister and SIL are both learning to sew at the moment and I would happily let either of them loose on this pattern. I was a little concerned about the amount of gathering that needed to be done, I know gathering isn't at all difficult but I seem to suck at it. It was no problem though. There are a couple of areas where I've ended up with slight tucks but I decided that I don't really give a monkey's. I'm also mostly pleased with the fit, it is a little loose in the shoulders and perhaps a bit long there too. There is plenty of room in the rest of the dress, but not as noticeable as in the shoulders, so before I make another I'll have to work out whether to cut the next size down or just adjust the shoulders a little.

The fabric is a light and fairly floaty viscose, despite this being a sleeved dress I can see me wearing it well into a British summer. I will have a go at making one without sleeves before long though.

The only problem with this dress, and it is currently a bit of a big problem, is that I can't actually wear it. I put it on yesterday thinking how cool I was in my super dooper handmade dress and then it suddenly dawned on me that there was no way I'd manage to nurse in it, so I just took a few pictures and reached for my current uniform of jeans and two tops! So disappointing, but I guess I've learnt my lesson and my next big project will be a wrap dress or a shirt. Obviously I will be able to wear this soon, Lissy is 15 months now and I will be slowly weaning her before long, but it was a bit of a disappointment to not be able to wear something right away when I finished it. This may explain the fact that I have a major case of bitchface in all my photos. Apologies for that, I'm very nice really!