Wow, I blinked and it’s been weeks since I blogged. For a traveller like me, summer as you might imagine is my busiest time. We are working extremely hard on catching up with the travel we missed while everyone had to stay at home, so I’ve been on a couple more trips. It’s also the time of year when I do a bit of teaching-related work. I have retired from teaching but I just like to keep my hand in, I can’t help myself, so I signed up for exam marking and invigilation again this year. To cap it all I’ve also been focussing on my allotment, we’ve had really good weather recently – for holidays and merrymaking anyway – not so much for gardeners and the lack of rain has meant I’ve needed to put a lot of work in at the plot. All of that means I’ve had little time for making clothes or recording them here.

This is going to be a very quick blog because I got so into making this quick dress that I finished it and realised I hadn’t recorded the process at all. So all the details will be from memory.

This dress is based on my “SimpliciTee” (Yes, I’m naming it and I’m naming it that!) pattern drafted from my favourite RTW tee shirt. I made a few very simple modifications to make this long-sleeved Tee shirt dress.

Made in this lovely cotton jersey fabric from Ditto Fabrics, I also made a tee shirt from it which you can see in my third MeMadeMay blog.

To make the dress I added sufficient length to hit above my knee. I rounded the sides to create an ever so slightly cocoon shape. I really want to crack drafting that shape as I love the look of it. There are in-seam pockets as that’s the law.

I wanted a dress with long full sleeves so I lengthened them and did a slash and spread to give the extra volume. a band brings in the cuff. They are not as full as Bishop sleeves, but it’s the same idea.

The dress came together in a flash, I think it was mostly muscle memory as I’ve sewn my tee shirt so many times now!

Do you ever sew in “auto-pilot” mode?

Thanks for dropping by,