I won the Friday Pattern Company Wilder gown pattern in the My Makes for the Month competition on Instagram.

I didn’t want to makethe dress, but I did like the idea of a couple of tops, so made the first one from some Indian cotton I won from FiberstoFabric, so it seemed a nice bit of symmetry. I didn’t make any changes to this Wilder, apart from taking it in a little in the hips, and the fit is pretty good.

I wore it out and about on a lockdown walk and discovered that I had it on inside out. Not that you can really tell! Between my hat and mask I am unrecognisable. Quite good really!

I then made a more summery one from a thrifted gauze baby swaddle. The fabric pattern is reasonably adult so I think I got away with it.

This one is the short sleeve version but I don’t like them for some reason so I added elastic.

It’s a small change but makes all the difference to the way I feel about it. Worn here with my Pattern Union Hannah culottes and belt made from leather harvested from an abandoned sofa.

My last one is mildly hacked in that I lengthened and widened the sleeves to create a puffy pirate sleeve. This one was made with the Instagram challenge for Magamsewalong April Ahoy in mind! I have been so slow with this challenge that I’m amazed I haven’t been keelhauled or made the walk the plank, given I’m one of the hosts.

Anyway I got there in the end, and am trying to make it look nautical with the puffy sleeves and wide leg Hannah culottes.

I created some problems for myself by cutting the bodice too short and adding a very full frill. You can’t believe how bad it looked. I didn’t have time to take a photo as I ripped it off very quickly. Unpicked it and added in a band that I had to piece together as I was running out of fabric. I do like the fact that the stripes run the other way though. Just a note here: the fabric is really bouncy and very hard to press without completely squashing the seersucker.

A quick try on and Mark wandered in and asked me if I was off to play tennis. Really?

I also didn’t like the ties. I had fashioned them out of scraps and didn’t follow the pattern. They are too wide. I had embroidered an anchor on the end of one to make it more “nautical”. Didn’t like that either!

So I was back to the drawing board. I unpicked the ties and made them much thinner. I removed the anchor as I didn’t like it.

Then I took off the ruffle – again! I cut off a section and pleated it with some fine and spaced out pleats.

I liked it much better. I was doing a bit of a sew along with Megan (meggipeg) and Katherine (sewblooms) and we caught up for a coffee and photoshoot.

Here we are in our Wilder tops – all very different!

My reworked top from the back. I’m not going to lie, I feel as though it’s far too frilly for me, and I’m planning to take the bottom frill off and rework it somehow. In the meantime, I’ll wear it whilst I consider my options.

• 

And finally, as a nod to the Ahoy April theme, I decided to appliqué a parrot to my top. I did resist putting it on my shoulder, but it was really tempting!

This was another area of indignance with Mark. I was busy showing him my patch and he said “oh you’ve sewn on a dolphin”. Dolphin? Dolphin?! “No it’s a parrot”, “No it’s definitely a dolphin”. Oh for heaven’s sakes. Anyway he finally saw it and I did a bright yellow eye to try and give it more definition. I really enjoyed playing with the stripes.

A close up shows it clearly, but it’s very subtle in reality.

This will probably be my last clothing make for April, but I can see myself putting this on whilst the weather is still warm enough.