Another Driftwood, this time a dress, shirt, and blouse!

by - 06:30

I mentioned in my last driftwood post that I had a blouse, shirt and dress in the works, well, I also made up another short sleeved blouse too! I think I've gone Driftwood crazy.



This pattern is so versatile, and it's a pattern I seem to have really clicked with. I find them super easy and quick to make, and most of all, they are happily worn by both my children, which is virtually unheard of.



I made my son another long cuffed sleeve shirt, with open neckline. It's a style he likes and he picked the red chambray fabric that I had in my extensive stash. He doesn't actually have much to pick from, most of it is either pink, or extremely floral. He's very gender orientated, despite our best efforts, and pretty much refuses anything vaguely pink, and floral now gets laughed at. The chambray is super stuff, I love the weight and drape, and it sews so well. Sadly, it's no longer available from Fabworks so I'll have to use my remaining few metres very wisely.



After my daughter saw my son's two shirts, she wanted in on the action too, so I made her up a long sleeved cuffed blouse too. She requested a button finish to the neckline, which is included in the pattern. I used a sparkly button that I'd bought in various colours when I was last at our bargain store Trago. It's a shop that sells pretty much everything, it's all cheap, most of it is seconds quality, but they have a large fabric and haberdashery section which is useful for things like buttons, cheap plain cottons and trims. The only problem with this shop is that they rarely have the same fabric in when you next visit, so planning ahead is nearly impossible.

I picked another Fabworks fabric for my daughter's blouse, a thin, lightweight summer cotton with a green floral print. It's still for sale this year here. I bought this last year, and made a small sun top for her which is now long outgrown.



Then, on to the dress. I got my daughter to pick the options she wanted, she chose short cuffed sleeves, a button neckline with ruffle and elastic waist. She could have had an a-line style dress, long sleeves, or elastic cuffs, but she knows what she likes and I have learnt not to deviate from that. I then gave her the choice of two fabrics that I have, and she picked out Mother's Garden Light, part of the Lavish collection designed by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics.



The dress came together reasonably quickly, my only issue was the elastic waistline. Threading elastic through a casing is my least favourite sewing job in the world. I find it fiddly and it takes me ages. I didn't have the correct tools to do this, but thanks to Amazon wishlist, and my lovely husband, I now have a Clover bodkin that makes things 100 times easier! I didn't have the correct size elastic for the waist, so I just went with what I had, which was a bit stronger (as in a tighter stretch) elastic than was called for.



My daughter did her usual trick sadly, and took one look at my lovingly made dress and said 'er, I'll try it on tomorrow'. At which point I started crying inside. I did manage to persuade her to put it on for a fit test, but then it got left unworn for a week. I had to beg her to wear it for photos, and apart from that, she hasn't worn it since. I wish she wasn't such a stubborn little girl sometimes.



I took them both out for my birthday, to try out the new camera that I'd been bought as a complete surprise. I decided to use the camera in full manual, so I ended up taking over 200 photos over the course of our walk. Most were under or over exposed, but a girl has got to learn somehow. It did mean that my daughter got a bit fed up in the end, as you can see by this photo.



I didn't stop there though. After a quick trip to a local charity shop whilst our car was being MOT'd, we found some bargain fabric which Little Miss picked out saying she wanted a pair of shorts and a blouse. I did explain that there may not be enough fabric for both, but for the price, I didn't mind trying. So I knocked up another blouse, this time with short sleeves and a big button loop on the tear drop shaped neck opening. I paired it with a pair of Pixie shorts with cuffed legs. I'd had the idea to make the outfit as one, as a romper, but Little Miss had other ideas, and wanted separates, which quite frankly was a lot easier for me.



I think it looks a bit 80's with the fabric print, but it's what she wants. She likes to wear matching fabric on top and bottom.



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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

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