A perfectly autumnal Matilda dress. This pattern came with an issue of Simply Sewing Magazine last year. It has a mock neck, drawstring waist and two sleeve options- short and long with an elasticized cuff. There is an invisible zipper in the center back bodice and a couple hook and eyes at the collar. I absolutely love the fabric I used. It’s a rayon from Joann’s. The colors are perfect and it’s so soft. I bought it last year but I still noticed a bit at my local Joann’s a few months ago!
This dress almost didn’t happen. I started it last fall and was so frustrated that I balled it up and hid it away. I want to start off by saying that it had nothing to do with the sewing pattern. It was just a series of unfortunate mistakes. One of them was with the fabric pattern matching. I was trying to match the bodice to skirt. I cut the plaid upside down on my bodice so while the overall plaid would line up, the orange lines would not. I don’t think it’s very noticeable now that it’s sewn together but at the time I was very frustrated with myself.
Then, while cutting out my sleeves I managed to cut a chunk out of one of the sleeve caps. I picked up a little but more of this fabric soon after but never got around to recutting. I was really excited about this dress when I started it last year so I decided to give this another shot a few months ago. When I pulled out the new piece of fabric to cut- I realized I didn’t have enough to cut a new sleeve with the plaid in the correct direction. I ended up just using the original sleeves I cut. I was able to ease them in and I couldn’t even tell you which sleeve was cut incorrectly now.
I’m so glad I revisited this dress. It’s going to get worn so much now that it’s finished. I think sometimes we just need to step away from things for bit and come back to them when we’re ready.
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