Cotton Lawn Sew Over It Doris Dress by Emma

Hi everyone,

For my most recent make, I was definitely thinking spring. I love organising what I am going to wear and when the season has already changed in your head, what could be better than making clothes which suit it.

I chose this beautiful Cotton Lawn for my make and wanted to make a floaty feminine dress to suit it. With this is mind, I chose the Sew Over It Doris Dress as it has a real feminine feel with skirt panels which add fullness at the skirt.

As usual with Sew Over It patterns, it came together really easily. I cut the largest size and was still a little worried about the sizing on my chest as I've had problems with fitting over the bust with Sew Over It patterns before. Once I'd made the bodice and tried it on, it seemed it would be tight so I chose to sew up the opening with a tiny seam; there is an option to have it as a mock opening so I went with that. I’m so glad to say it worked! 

I usually avoid facings on garments as much as I can but the facings on this dress are very clever and join to create a neat front placket too. It's one of those where it looks like it can't possibly come together but it does. Sewing magic!

I finished all the panels for my skirt on my overlocker as recommended and I was really glad I had access to my overlocker for this as the fabric is very fine and needed a sure fire way to secure the fraying. There are 6 panels so it was a long but quite therapeutic process.

The rest of the construction was self explanatory but I was very happy to be able to insert an invisible zip down the side which has made for a really neat finish overall. There's a little bonus back piece (I don't know what you would call it) that you can use to pull it in slightly, which is very clever for a flattering fit. There is also an option for ties which I think would be quite nice but they take a lot of fabric so I went with the little rectangle. It has mock buttons so I needed buttons for the front and 2 for the back. 

I debated buttons and which colour I could use to blend in and then I remembered I had some self covered buttons in my stash. I've never used them before because I thought it would be tricky but it was surprisingly easy. You just cut circles to size using the template. It recommends using two pieces of fabric or interfacing for thinner fabrics so I cut two pieces together for each button. You then sew a gathering stitch around the edge and pull it around the button. Then close the bottom in place and secure it by pressing a bobbin on it. A little fiddly but so easy and well worth it to add to the neat look I've aimed to achieve with this garment. I would definitely do self covered buttons again. The pack came with 5 so I used two on the back piece and 3 on the front. 

I’m really happy with this super pretty dress. The fabric is a summery, floaty dream and I can’t wait for the sun to come out to wear it more!

You can follow Emma's sewing on her instagram page and her blog.

All Sew Me Sunshine bloggers are gifted fabric, and in return they provide a written blog post of their make, they are able to choose what project they want to make.