Holiday happiness
As I mentioned in my last post, Mum and I had a holiday together in April and this was the second dress that I sewed for our Queensland island getaway. I do love a boxy linen dress, even better if it’s from a Japanese pattern book!
This is Pattern M from Machiko Kayaki’s book with the translated title ‘Clothes That Look Beautiful’ (ISBN 978-4-579-11568-6).
The fabric is a lovely vintage washed linen from work which was super soft and perfect for gathers.
I still wear my green giant plaid crinkle linen version of this pattern circa 2019 (see below) and always receive compliments.
For my second iteration of this pattern I made a few minor changes:
- I lowered the neckline, so that I didn’t have to mess around with a back neck split and button closure, and finished it with bias binding
- I lengthened the sleeves by 2″ (5cm) so that they didn’t ‘catch’ on a bent elbow
The genius piece of drafting in this pattern is the side seams. One is slightly a-line and the other more cocoon. They balance each other out, but it’s shaping I haven’t come across before, so I thought worth mentioning.
Now if winter would just be over so I can wear this dress all the time!
Pattern: Dress M from a Japanese sewing book (ISBN 978-4-579-11568-6)
Size: 9
Fabric: Vintage washed linen from The Cloth Shop
Alterations: Lowered the neckline, lengthened the sleeves by 2″ (5cm), removed 3″ (7.5cm) from the length of the dress, performed a 3/8″ (1cm) forward shoulder adjustment and left off the sleeve ties.
Accessories: Sonia Rykel beads from 10+ years ago (my favourite) and shoes purchased 8 years ago from Yoox.
Location: Eastern Suburbs, Melbourne
