It’s summer here in Australia and the idea of a snowball is very appealing, so I made the Yuki Waffle patterns Snowball dress, which I’ve had my eye on for a little while. I won the pattern in the Designin’ December challenge in December last year, and I’m pleased to have given it a go.

I thought I’d try it out of denim as a trans-seasonal weight dress, and three pairs of jeans were definitely harmed to get all the pieces cut out. I actually think the denim is too heavy, especially for the bodice, but I was trying to fit myself into the Refebulous 2026 challenge.

I chose size 40 and for some reason I didn’t grade down to 36 at the hip, I think I wanted to see just how big it would be as sometimes skirts are ok a little wider. I shall definitely do the grading next time.

The snowball is a high necked, sleeveless dress with a high waistline at the front, skimming down at the bck. The dress has a lovely silhouette with the flared skirt and princess seams.

This is the pile of jeans I dug about in to make this dress and I tried hard to get some symmetry with the denim colours. This is just one of my denim piles – I have a couple of boxes of smaller scraps.

Everytime I tried it on before it was finished, my husband and I agreed that it was ugly, but I did push on, thinking that it would look better in more delicate fabric and I wanted to check the sizing. Unpicking did happen, unfortunately after I had basically finished, when I realised that I had a princess seam curved line at the centre back, which is not a good look.

However, I got there in the end. You can see the promise of this pattern, but it certainly feels too big everywhere except across the top. That’s ok, it will be good with a merino skivvy underneath it in the winter.

I used back pockets on the sides and managed to get the hem fade all the way round.

Interestingly I think the back seems to fit better than the front which might just be the waist shaping.

The pocket shadows are slightly uneven at the back so I put the required heart over the top to distract the viewer. This heart is to remind us all that we need to be aware of women’s heart health and get regular checkups.

I’ll be picking stray threads out of this dress for a long, long, time. I decided to fray the edge of this heart to create more interest – and distraction!

The dress has a contrasting facing and I chose some striped material from my stash, originally given to me by Jenny @joeandroxy on IG.

The weather cooled down sufficiently for me to wear the dress out for coffee with a friend.

Of course I had to get a photo with my new Solace Leather bag. It coordinates perfectly!

I love this photo of Miss E rearranging the furniture in the playroom. She was very industrious.