This is a dress that I self drafted from a dress given to me for my birthday by my friend S.

I used a piece of cotton that I had in my stash and which can only be described as pixellated flowers.

I was immediately drawn to the fabric by the vibrant colours – greens and purples, my favourite, but then struggled to find anything to make from it as the pattern needed to be unbroken by too many seams or details. When I was given the dress for my birthday I thought that it would be a perfect style for this one.

It was so simple to do, and yet I made it so hard! I decided that I wanted to alter the neckline to create a different look, so I went for a slashed boat style neck. Of course I went too wide, meaning that it was impossible to hide my underwear. However, one of my Lutterloh patterns (don’t ask me which, I couldn’t find it) has this little neck insert and so that’s what I did. A bit of a fiddle, but it worked really well. If you look hard enough you can see the insert on the shoulder.

I also added in seam pockets. The fabric was interesting in that the colours morphed from green to purple across the width. I tried everything to get the flowers in the middle but the fabric wasn’t wide enough, but I am really happy with the way it turned out. The front and the back, though, are completely different colourways.

I have another piece of this fabric and just this morning considered that I could have made Mark a shirt from it all. Minor regret ensued, but I might see if I have enough to squeeze him a short sleeved shirt from it. We could look really cheesy and wear matching outfits!

The details:

Pattern is self-drafted

Fabric is cotton from Potter’s

Shoes are Ettore Masotti

Necklace is a gift from Tom and Bridgette brought back from Venice

Setting is the sculpture park that I can see from my office window, previously mentioned. There are five of these leaves, each with a motivating word on them; these two say “Resonance” and “Resilience”. The red and blue bunting encloses the open air movie theatre that we have on the campus.