I’ve mentioned before that I often have “cutting out frenzies” where I get a whole lot of patterns cut out ready to sew.  The upside of this is that when the urge strikes and the opportunity arises, I usually have something cut out that I am really eager to sew together and I can get straight into it.  The downside is that I don’t always get all the items sewn up in the appropriate season.  On Friday I completed an Ice Cream Dress for Clare.

I know, a summer dress just when the weather is cooling down for winter.  Luckily Autumn is doing what it does best, and the weather is veering wildly from winterish one day to summerish the next.  Clare will probably be able to get a day or two of wear out of this before things really get cold, and it has plenty of room in it for next summer anyway.  I used size 8.

This is such a sweet design!  The fabrics have been in my stash for a few years – they were originally bought to make up a New Look top and pants combination for Clare in about a size 4, which never happened.  Then I thought I’d make it for Stella.  That didn’t happen either.  So I’ve used them with this Oliver + S pattern for Clare. They’re quilting cottons, and I didn’t have quite enough for the hem facing and yoke facing, so used another fabric from the same range for those pieces.   The pockets are extra cute.  I used a vintage button for the back closure.

The back yoke was the only thing that I wasn’t completely happy with.  I think that the way that the back yoke is attached to the body of the dress leaves a really weak spot in the centre where you have to clip the seam allowances so the body fabric can be tucked up into the yoke.  It’s not obvious in the photos, however.  The little notches on the pocket trim are echoed in the front neckline.

As always, copious instructions and special details from Oliver + S.  They’re not the fastest patterns to sew up, because of those lovely touches, but they really give a delightful result.  And the instructions are detailed enough that you don’t really have to be an experienced dressmaker to sew them.  Actually, the three new Oliver + S patterns are winging their way to me as I type….