My Latest Make - Hacked Tilly & The Buttons, Martha

Hi Sewers!

This week I am very excited to share my latest summer make, it's a hacked Tilly & The Buttons Martha Dress. On my commute to work I often find myself observing other peoples clothes, making mental notes for future projects. Recently I've seen a lot of Broderie Anglais dresses and blouses with plenty of romantic details such as: frills, gathering, mandarin collars and trims.

So I went about drafting up how I wanted it to look:

Excuse my rough sketch! I was at work.

Key features:

• Frills! - Bust, neck, sleeve
• Bell sleeves
• Lace zip

Once I knew how I wanted it to look I went about finding an appropriate pattern and found the Martha Dress with it's princess seams and mandarin collar was the perfect match. 

Pattern Alterations

1. The Broderie Anglais fabric has beautiful border embroidery so I wanted to take advantage of this on the hems of the skirt and sleeves. However, the skirt is cut on the bias which would have made this impossible. So I switched out the Martha skirt for the Clemence Skirt from Tilly's first book Love at First Stitch.
2. The sleeves on the pattern are flared but I wanted to create a bell shape and add trim into the joining seam so rather than using the Martha sleeves I used Megan Nielsen Dove Blouse sleeves. However, I still had the same issue with the bell being cut on the bias so I made these in the same fashion as the skirt and gathered them on.
3. I used Broderie Anglais trims (also from MacCulloch & Wallis) gathered into the princess seams, neck band and sleeves. I achieved this by measuring the seams, multiplying this by 1.5 and stitching gathering stitches along the edge then finished by sandwiching them into the seams.
4. I also decided to add a lace exposed zip rather than a concealed zip. Bought from Tudor Rose Patchwork on Etsy.
5. Lastly the pattern says to stitch a hairband into the collar to secure the button closure but I found an ornate button loop at Kleins on Berwick Street so I added that instead.

Specifications

Fabric: Broderia Anglais from MacCulloch & Wallis lined with a plain white cotton from Walthamstowe Market
Difficulty Level: Advanced (due to hacks and eyelet fabric)
Size: I ended up only using the bodice parts of the pattern but I graded between a size 2 and 3 from the bust to the waist seam.

 

 

Outcome
The dress is pretty much spot on with how I expected it to look, there only 2 things which are different, I originally wanted to use a purple trim in the seam on the sleeves but after many tests I could not get the trim to be colour fast so to avoid the whole dress turning pink when I washed it I opted for a white trim instead. The other difference is that I wanted the bust frill to continue around the back but due to the way the bodice is constructed I wasn't confident it would flow properly over the shoulders so opted to keep the trim to the front only.

All-in-all I absolutely adore this dress! It's bang on trend and really comfortable to wear. It's versatile and I'm really looking forward to pairing it with a chunky jumper, wool tights and ankle boots in the autumn.

Now I'm working on my last few summer makes before Autumn is upon us, I'm really excited for this Autumn as I've been taking part in the Seamwork Design Your Wardrobe challenge and I'm ready to get making some 70's inspired autumnal layers.

Happy sewing!