Spring!

While I am definitely ready for spring and the daffodils popping up everywhere are testament to the fact it is imminent, I haven't made the mental switch to spring sewing just yet.  My winter sewing plans have not yet been completed and I am somewhat reluctant to move on without completing them.  My latest project does however transition the two seasons quite nicely.  It has been completed for a several weeks but during this time I have lost a bit of weight so actually now, like just about everything else in my wardrobe, is actually a little big!  Oh well, at least it is a shift dress and was never designed to be fitting anyway.

The fabric I chose was bought to make a dress last summer but the colours actually work quite well as a winter spring transitional dress.  The fabric is stretch cotton sateen which I bought on Trademe.  After reading countless reviews, I settled on New Look 6145.  I didn't have the luxury of an online pattern sale this time so New Look was also economical to buy locally.  

I cut the dress to size 10 and size 12 in the hips as per my usual sizing. Even before I lost weight, I found this style a little voluminous so ended up adding extra darts to the front of the dress.  To do this I mimicked the back darts but on the front.  It certainly helped to contain the volume but I think now it could probably benefit from running in a little more.  I think though, I will wait until my weight stabilizes.  I actually like the fit of my frankenpattern work dress better but prefer the sleeves on this one so another frankenpattern of my previous frankenpattern may be in order.