Betty Betty Betty Betty Betty Betty Betty Betty BETTY!!

 

I am in love with this dress. It's everything a dress should be; fitted around the bust, demure in the neckline, and so fun in the skirt that you need to spin around in a circle endlessly giggling with glee whilst it twirls around you. And don't even get me started about the back! (you can see that in the pictures on the right)

 

This pattern is from Sew Over It and one of the many things I like about it is how simple it is to sew (for the most part).

 

You DO need to be careful with fabric choice, because the skirt is a full circle (joined at the side seams) which means the pattern will turn 90 degrees between the side seam and the mid front of the dress. With the pattern I chose thankfully you really can't tell, and it does say this on the pattern itself, but one to take notice of if you don't want vertical motorcycles driving happily across the front of your skirt but having to turn up a bit of a vertical incline at the side seams!

 

For evidence of this just take a look at the taxi peplum top made with an adjusted version of the Betty pattern - New York City simply ain't that hilly...

 

The only bit about this make that is a bit tricky is attaching the facing, it's an all in one job so you have to do some complicated fiddling about with the straps. I think I did it five times before I got it right (including stitching the left strap to the right strap which was a particular highlight) but eventually I got there and it does look lovely when finished. I should point out that the instructions do actually tell you what to do quite clearly, but I found the blog post about it on the Sew Over It website invaluable and would highly recommend a look if you haven't sewn this sort of facing before. And probably don't do it at 11pm...after some wine.

 

Anyway...a LOVELY dress that always gets comments and utterly beautiful fabric that I completely took for granted when I bought it and having since purchased other cotton lawns realise just what amazing quality it was, entirely and completely worth the money.