A coat, the Merchant&Mills Factory Dress and Camber Dress

I like to sew dresses. Dresses always inspire me and they are fun to make. But somehow I wear dresses only at summertime. Because  when it is winter, you have to find matching coat and boots to your dress and if you haven’t planned properly, nothing in your wardrobe matches. That is often the case in my house. So I finally understood that I desperately need a good coat in my wardrobe so I could wear all the dresses I make and give my jeans a rest.

After a long deliberation I decided to use the pattern from the Burda Style Magazine 08/2014. This pattern is for tall women and I am not tall. Maybe that was causing some fitting issues I had to fix. My mother is my “sewing buddy” but she lives far so my husband had to manage to do the fitting. It was not the smoothest but together we managed to raise the shoulder in strategic spots and this helped to fix the crossing fronts.

I also managed to burn the front with the iron although the material is wool. So I had to make a seam to the fronts (to replace the burnt shoulder) and because I already had the seams, I also made the in seam pockets too.

 

I also lengthened the coat, because my dresses are usually knee-height.  The fabric is two layered – the outer layer is wool and inner layer is cotton. I have worn the coat for a month now and it pills a bit. I hope the pilling stops soon 🙂 But all in all I am content with my new coat and I have worn dresses a lot lately. I also bought my first Dr. Martens (shoes AND boots) to complete the look so I am a really happy camper!

 

I also made two dresses. I fell in love with Merchant&Mills and ordered some patterns and their book. I love this company to pieces and I cannot imagine a better looking sewing company. I have watched their video twenty times at least! Their shop in Rye, East Sussex is my dream destination now 🙂

First I made the famous Factory Dress. I used a nice yarn-dyed linen from my stash. I decided to cut the smallest size available although not all my measurements fall to this column. I didn’t change anything except the length and I think it came out beautifully. I have worn this dress a lot and I just cannot get over how much I love how a linen fabric creases. This is just beautiful 🙂

 

 

 

 

Then I made the Camber dress. I liked the plaid dress on their website so much that I decided to make mine out of plaid wool. I was lucky to find exactly the fabric I was looking for (Kangastuudio in Tallinn, Estonia). I did struggle with the sleeves because I lengthened them but the original pattern was not good for long sleeves (the cap was too shallow). So I used a sleeve pattern I already had and recut the sleeve. I managed to set the sleeve about seven times before I was satisfied with the result.

 

I also lined the body of the dress. I didn’t see that the lining was showing until I saw these pictures. So I have to fix it. I will also make short slits to the sides as I narrowed the dress a bit and it is a bit uncomfortable to walk (the dress tends to rise when I walk). Other than that I am happy with my dress and I have already worn it to a concert and two birthday parties.