My Heart Will Go On Dress

 

I love a quirky fabric and when I saw this one by Little Johnny on Minerva I knew I needed to make a dress in it. The pattern is the Saraste dress from the book, Breaking the pattern by Named Clothing. I have made the sleeveless version of this dress a couple of times so I knew it fit pretty well.

However, after making the shirt version I noticed some strange pulling on the shoulders. I did a bit of investigating and made some alterations. I made a square shoulder adjustment, which meant raising the armhole by 2cm and adjusting the slope of the shoulder to match and a 1.5cm broad shoulder adjustment. I used a straight sleeve from the Solina dress from the same book. I also drafted my own inseam pockets - I mean a dress with pockets is defo the way forward and I miss having them in my other Saraste dresses.

I knew that matching the pattern would be important with this fabric, so that meant some careful cutting out. The repeat isn’t too big so 3m was ample to match the key areas. I worked hard to match the centre front on the button placket and the yoke on the back - I think I’ve done a pretty good job with those. It’s harder to match the princess seams, but I tried to keep the pattern flowing as much as possible here. I did not try to match the pattern on the skirt sections - as they are gathered It’s pretty impossible to see any mismatch and it would have taken yards and yards of fabric and I hate fabric waste!

I’ve dubbed this dress ’my heart will go on’ dress. The pattern is lots of lovely heart shapes and as someone who doesn’t often do florals, It fits well with my likes. It’s a beautiful smooth fabric, presses well, It doesn’t crease particularly. The photos were taken after a full day at work and it’s still fairly crease-free. I have already worn it a few times to work. I am a natural fabrics person and don’t enjoy sewing or wearing synthetics on the whole, so having a long sleeve cotton dress to wear during the cooler months is a bonus. It saves me shivering in my classroom when the heating isn’t on.

I had hoped to get some photos outside, but what with storm Arwen and then torrential rain the next weekend. It’s had to be in the evening when I got in from work - Hate the dark nights - bring on the long days and sunshine!