Hello ! I’m Clementine (or @clematcha) and I am very excited to be writing about my latest make using Sew Me Sunshine fabrics !
When Sew Me Sunshine offered me to collaborate and make a garment from any of their fabric, a pattern immediately popped in my mind : the “Cleo Dress”. I bought it this autumn because I was in desperate need of some basic little dresses. To make my sewing more mindful and sustainable, I am always planning my projects ahead, thinking about how much I will need and wear this garment.
This dress is designed for medium to heavy weight fabrics like corduroy, denim, twill. I had made a black one before out of light denim, so this time I chose to use Robert Kaufman’s off-white ventana cotton twill. For the sleeve and neck bindings and the pocket linings, I used a little piece of cotton off-white and black cotton I had in my remnant box.
I loved this twill the minute I opened the parcel from Sew Me Sunshine. The quality was amazing, and this twill had exactly the kind of structure I was looking for. It was really stable to cut, easy to press and nice to sew. After a little bit of needle and thread testing, I decided to use 90/14 denim needles and Gutermann cotton thread, which was absolutely perfect for all the top stitching I had to do.
Sew Me Sunshine also sent me nickel D rings from the Merchant & Mills to finish the belt, which I was so happy about : quality haberdashery is a big part in having a good looking and durable garment.
About this pattern, this is the Cleo Dress, from the Fibre Mood number 21. As I said, this was my second time using it, and I didn’t want the two dresses to look too similar. This is why this time I decided to merge the top and skirt pieces together to get rid of the waist seam, and change the back from a button placket to an invisible zipper.
This dress took way longer to finish than what I was expecting, as a lot of its details were very time consuming : the invisible zipper, topstitching, bias binding finish for the neckline and sleeve… But at the end of the day, it was definitely worth it, and I am so proud of how this dress came out !
This really inspired me in making other garments out of this twill ; I imagine it would make a La Veste by Atelier Brunette or Modern Worker Trousers by Modern Sewing. I am very grateful to the Sew Me Sunshine team for sending me this lovely fabric and giving me the opportunity to write this blog post.
Find me @clematcha on Instagram !
*Clementine was provided the fabric of her choice free of charge for her blog post & also provided with a £50 voucher *