Groove on

Last summer in London, over a year ago now, I followed in the footsteps of my lovely friend Juju Vail and created a knock off of a Cos t-shirt swing dress. I wasn’t thrilled with the result because I thought it needed to be tighter over my bust to avoid the impression of being pregnant! Nevertheless, I still really liked the idea so was excited when a couple of indie sewing pattern designers released patterns – the Groove dress by Made It Pattern (based in the UK) and the even more voluminous Ebony dress by Closet Case Files. The key feature of both patterns was negative ease over the bust and then FLARE. I chose the Made It option, supporting a fellow UK person and the swing was more to my taste than the super mega flare on the Ebony skirt.

As I mentioned in my Make Nine planning post, I intended to create a toile using some grey marle viscose jersey fabric, but I didn’t have enough, so I went straight to the good stuff.  I cut out the straight hem version to a length that I knew would be too long but I wanted options.I loved the neckline treatment in the pattern, I think it’s very neat in appearance and though it’s a little fiddly it was worth it. 

Back in Australia, I’ve since sewn up a wintry version using a seater knit fabric with ¾ sleeves.  I call this one my secret pyjama dress.  The fabric is amazingly soft with good recovery but the fabric/pattern combo doesn’t look like pyjamas – so I can wear it to work on casual Fridays.  And I managed it out of 2m of 1.5m wide fabric. I also sewed a tee shirt version in some black merino jersey. Really comfy with a pair of jeans, or shorts as the weather continue to improve I hope. 

I’ve got plans for one more at this stage – a high-low hem tee shirt version with some black/floral jersey.  Watch this space!