Angela's Nina Lee Park Lane Dress

Hi, I’m Angela (@mrspsews) and I was delighted to be asked by Katie from @sewsewsew to write a guest blog!  I buy fabric from Katie’s online shop all the time, she stocks some wonderful fabrics so I knew I would be spoilt for choice choosing some for this blog. 

I decided on this beautiful summer flowers viscose. I’m a sucker for a floral print!  I certainly wasn’t disappointed when the fabric arrived.  It’s great when the fabric is even nicer than it appears on the website! It has a black background and is bursting with colourful flowers.  Feels so soft to touch and drapes beautifully.  I felt the Nina Lee, Park Lane dress would look amazing in this fabric.  I couldn’t wait to get started!!!

My measurements are B32, W26, H33 which sized me in-between a 6 and 8.  I know it’s best to size up but looking at the finished garment measurements and with the skirt falling above the waistline I felt I only needed to ensure the bust and shoulders where a good fit.  2 metres of fabric were needed for my size and 10 pattern pieces to cut.

The dress came together well and I found the instructions to be clear and easy to follow. I would definitely recommend this pattern.   I do prefer when a pattern tells me when to finish the seams though, the instructions only mention this step at certain points and not throughout. 

The dress has a 16 inch invisible zip on the left side, some quaint gathers at the front down from the bust and a keyhole opening with loop fastening at the back.

 I opted for the shoulder ruffle version, love this cute detail!

I sometimes find it tricky when you need to press a very small hem, I tend to go a bit wobbly, especially when the fabric is floaty.  So I started using this little technique which seems to help.  I measure and fold the hem and pin the small hem to the ironing board and as I’m ironing remove the pins along the way.  

One of the options for sewing the ruffle is using a rolled hem foot which I’ve never used before so this was a great opportunity to give it a go.  I practiced on a couple of straight pieces of fabric, which after a couple of attempts felt I got the hang of.  Doing this on a circular edge was a little more challenging!!  They’re not perfect, but no one would know!

The short sleeve version has a nice bit of gathering into a cuff band.

I made two alterations, when stitching the bodice to the skirt I sewed a 1 inch seam rather than 5/8 just to lift it a little.  At 5ft 4” most makes I need to trim a little off the bottom before hemming, I took 2 ½ inch off to get the length I wanted.

No garment is complete without a label! This is one of the labels which came from the @kylieandthemachine advent calendar.

Thanks to the lovely Katie for inviting me to write my very first blog and thank you for taking the time to read it.

Happy Sewing!!

Angela xx

 

** Angela was given the fabric in exchange for this lovely blog post **