Highland Thistle Dress

I LOVE this fabric and have finally been brave enough to cut into it and made myself a dress for the winter here in Scotland.  The fabric is a good quality knit fabric designed by Anna Maria Horner.

I was originally going to use the Colette Moneta pattern for this fabric but decided to use Butterick 5523 instead.  I have made this dress twice before (as a sleeveless and in Autumn colours) and I love how comfortable as well as neat looking this dress can be.

As the fabric makes me feel all Scottish and Highland-ery, I thought I would drive up the road to get some photos of it.  Our village is situated right where two rivers and two Glens meet, so we have lots of hills very close to us.  These photos were taken up the Glen this morning, even though it is freezing cold, the sun was shining a wee bit!

no filter here - this is exactly how it looks today!

When making this dress I added 1" to the front bodice to help make sure that the empire line stayed under my bust.  I also added 4" to the hemline.  I used my overlocker to make this dress, which was so quick and easy, but when it came to adding the skirt to the top, I forgot that I was supposed to keep the seam allowance so that I could enclose the waist elastic within it!  I had just let the overlocker cut it all off!  Oh well, I shall see how the dress goes keeping it's shape without the added elastic for now.  I used a stretch twin needle on my normal sewing machine to sew the hem on the sleeves and the skirt hem.

(the flash went off in this photo, don't know why, but it was my last one, too cold today)

The pattern is supposed to have a small tab of fabric with two buttons on the back, but I messed mine up and couldn't be bothered making another one.  It looks quite okay without it anyway.

the back is pretty plain

Whilst I was getting these snaps a full rainbow came out, so I shall leave you with my lucky shot!