Now that the weather has turned decidedly arctic outside it seems very timely to be making a sweater dress. I was very kindly gifted this gorgeous fabric called Parading Palms from Minerva’s new exclusive French Terry collection and chose to pair it with the Billie dress from Tilly and the buttons.
I absolutely love this fabric, its warm autumn colours and bold print immediately appealed to me. It’s even nicer when you actually physically get to work with it. The print is such good quality and the fabric is a perfect weight and feels very luxurious.
This was my first time working with French Terry and it definitely won’t be my last. I’m used to working with jersey and so found the slightly more stable knit a total joy.
As the pattern had been on my ‘to make’ list for quite sometime I have had plenty of time to see other people’s versions and read their reviews. Quite a few mentioned that both the neck and hem bands fitted very snugly so I checked and found I definitely needed to adjust them. I also did an FBA.
As usual, hubby cut out my fabric for me using a rotary cutter and I was able to sew the majority of the dress using my overlocker. I only used my cover stitch machine for finishing the neckline once it had been constructed. You could very easily construct this whole project just using a zig zag or lightening stitch on a normal sewing machine. As usual Tilly’s instructions are very clear and I think this would definitely be a good pattern for a confident beginner.
I love the style of this dress and the fact it isn’t tight over the tummy but unfortunately for me as a wheelchair user it’s not the comfiest to wear. It’s probably my own fault because I should have realised, but the seam from the hem band is quite substantial to be sat on all day. Maybe it would have been better if I’d not used ribbing as that does seem to make the seam a little stiffer and more bulky, but I think even using the main fabric the seam would still rub on my legs. Maybe I could have just done away with the hem cuff and hemmed it as normal.
I know if I wasn’t using a chair I would have a wardrobe full of these dresses but I reluctantly have to admit that I shall probably only be making the sweatshirt versions in the future.
I’m going to see how I get on with this one but I may well end up shortening it to sweater length although it will be through gritted teeth as I do love it. But comfort wins every time I’m afraid.
Image description: (there are six images showing Yvonne sat in her wheelchair taken from different angles. She is wearing a bold patterned sweater dress that has circles and palm leaves printed on it in black, cream navy and rust)
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