William Morris Dress

Well I am calling this my William Morris dress because that is what the fabric reminds me of.  The fabric was simply called birds and flowers, which says it all really but as soon as I opened it I thought William Morris.  I have had a look around and had it been based on one of his original designs I think it would have been a bit more than £7.50 a metre!   I only bought one metre too because it was intended for a top but as soon as I saw it I changed my mind.  I kept the shape simple just a tunic shape with a little elastic at the waist to give it a bit of interest.

It is quite thin so I think warm summer wear or definitely with leggings the rest of the time, it also originally had longer sleeves that I cut down to just three quarter. However I had a mishap when cleaning up the seams under the overlocker and it dragged the sleeve in cutting a hole in it!  At that point I had to shorten the sleeves altogether.

There was just enough of a strip left to make a narrow tie belt, I think that just finishes it off.

There was no pattern this time just a bit of making it up as I went, I used another dress for the general size and shape.  Also there wasn't actually enough fabric for any sleeves with the pattern laying in the right direction so what I did was sew the strips that were left together  then cut out the sleeve shape with a seam running down the centre of the arm.  Once the seams were ironed flat it is such a busy pattern you can't notice it.

Here you can see the join, but not once it was ironed.

This fabric was nice to work with and has a bit of a floaty feel so it will be nice to wear in the warmer months. I am also hoping it will be one of those items that doesn't crease too much when you wear it. 

When I wasn't making that I was reading The other Side of Happiness by Brock Bastian.  This was quite an interesting read and I just picked it up by chance in the library.

What I found most interesting were the points about how young people are becoming less resilient due to the way in which they are protected to from everything that could possibly upset them.  Rather then learning and growing form setbacks and challenges many are falling apart at the first problem.   We all want to protect our children but I suppose in our current way of life many problems are prevented before they ever surface. One thing that springs to my mind is the way sports day no longer has individual winners just winning teams, surely we have to learn to take part with the possibility of not always being a winner or ever?    Anyway it worth  a look, although some of the initiation rituals practised by some tribes that are mentioned in the book,  left me a little queasy!

Etsy Shop