Georgina's French Navy Orla Dress made using our stretch crepe

Sew... I am still completely in love with the Orla. I definitely think the waist darts work better with my large bust. I'm now on the lookout for more dresses with waist darts so let me know your recommendations. Or maybe I should attempt dart rotation and move the dart from the side to the waist, eek!

It was Harriet who suggested I make ANOTHER Orla, which I had no problems with, out of this Twilight Meadow 4 way stretch triple crepe. My fabric knowledge is shocking, like so bad. I have no idea about fabric types and it's really something I should learn about. Harriet is super and is always there when I need help and I know she will also be there for fabric help and advice for any of you sewists out there looking for the perfect fabric. Harriet also sent me a video to show me the fabric in more detail which was amazing.


With my Orla pattern already cut out and altered I just made one further alteration to the neck line as I find that it gapes slightly at the front and back. I used this brilliant tutorial from Lauren at Guthrie and Ghani. Before I cut into the fabric I quickly tried on my cactus Orla to check that it actually fits as I made it last year and it did, yay!

I washed the fabric on my normal wash cycle, eco 40 degrees, and it washed just fine. A massive bonus for this fabric is that it doesn't need ironing, whoop!  I always use a rotary cutter and it just glided through the fabric.

For the skirt I decided to do some pleats that matched up with the front and back darts rather than a full pleated skirt. The front darts are in clusters of three and are an inch apart. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to describe this clearly but I'll give it a go! I measure from the side seam of the top to the first dart then added 2 inch, then to next dart which was 1 inch and added another 2 inch, to the next dart another inch and a further 2 inches. You then need to measure across to the next dart clusters and repeat this process until you are at the opposite side seam. So each pleat has 2 inch of fabric but because it is folded back on itself to it is only 1 inch wide and won't overlap with the next pleat. Measuring accurately between each dart will mean that the pleats line up perfectly if your darts are slightly off.


I was hoping I wouldn't need a zip but there is a big difference between my waist and bust measurement so thought they were never going to squeeze through even with the slight stretch of the fabric but they did! Stretch is my new favourite!

You don't need to finish the seams as this fabric will not fray but I always think it's looks more professional with an overlocked edge, even using black thread on a white background!

As you can see I haven't finished the neckline. I don't know they best way to finish it. Any suggestions please?

I will definitely be using this fabric type again. Harriet has some other gorgeous floral prints and some solids so do I make another Orla or try out another pattern?