My Latest Make - Tilly and the Buttons, Indigo

This project began like many, with the fabric. This is a beautiful viscose from the Soiree collection from Dashwood Studios which I picked up from John Lewis, and thanks to an error in the till I got it for an absolute steal! I am absolutely in love with this fabric, the print, the colours, the drape, how soft it is. So much, in fact, I basically put the fabric on a pedestal which made it almost impossible to find an appropriate pattern I was willing to sacrifice it to.

It had sat in my stash for months and I would take it out and stroke it every now and then even showing my colleagues, that’s how obsessed I was with this fabric! Finally I decided the only pattern brand that could possibly be suitable for this perfect fabric would be Tilly and theButtons because I knew whatever I chose would fit beautifully, have simple instructions to follow and be low-risk meaning I wasn’t about to waste my dream fabric on something I would never wear.

I decided to go with the Indigo dress with the added bottom tier and button-up back as I loved its simplicity, it’s bang on trend and showcases the drape of my fabric. The balance between the tiers is just right as well as the length and to top it all off it has pockets! As with all of Tilly’s patterns the instructions were clear with colour photos and easy to follow. At one point the instructions tell you to make a cup of tea and remove the gathering stitches which I merrily did while watching trash TV on Netflix, definitely my favourite moment in this make.

I took my time to go through each step carefully out of respect for my fabric and because I know I’ll be wearing this a lot so I didn’t want to get anything wrong that would annoy me every time I wore it. One thing I would do differently though is to use a sharps needle rather than a universal one as the fabric has a tendency to snag and pull threads, this happened a couple times but the pattern is so busy it’s barely noticeable.

I hear we have another heat wave on the cards this month so I’ve made this dress just in time but I think I’ll still be wearing it in the autumn with a pair of DMs. Better get going with the last of my summer makes!






Location: London, UK

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