Florence #3

Hi Everyone 

Florence #3 is finished and ready to wear.

                

This Florence is a dress version of the wonderful Merchant&Mills pattern and made using a Vintage Blue Linen Rami. Check out a previous post which introduced the Make here . I’ve already made two blouse versions and the dress was pretty much the same Make. The only difference between the blouse and the dress is the length of the frill. You can check out my previous Florence Makes here and here.

My dress version was inspired by a Merchant&Mills Instagram post - check it out here. Initially, I had the plan to follow the advice of extending the frill by 61cm. However, I didn’t have enough fabric ! I’m not that tall, so thought I’d go for 55cm (all that I had). Having completed the dress, the 61cm would have been much too long. As I wear the dress, it’s about the same as the look on the Instagram photo. 

Generally, the Make was very straightforward. This pattern follows a very simple construction and everything works beautifully. I decided early on, to make a double front bodice. I felt the dress would hang better is the bodice was a little more structured. I think, this was a good idea - it works well. Unfortunately, I managed to add the frill the wrong way around ie back to front. Not sure how I did that ? This meant that the back was considerably shorter than the front, the bodice has a pronounced dip at the front. There is also more fabric to the back section too, so the gathering did not work at all. The only solution- it had to be undone ! I’d also overlocked the gathered frill seam ! It took me forever to undo. I needed to be very careful with the unpicking because there was so little fabric to work with.

However, all is well and the dress is amazing. I must also mention the lovely, very stylish buttons. Look closely at the top right photo. I had bought these buttons for another project but they are perfect for this dress.

So, I think that’s it for the Florence pattern, for a while. I’m not sure what I’m making next. I need to give it some thought.

Thanks for calling in today.