My New Craft House Everyday Dresses

One of my favourite patterns this year was the New Craft House Everyday Dress. I have seen similar dresses made by sustainable fashion brands and have made a couple of puff sleeve dresses by hacking the Tilly and the Buttons Indigo dress with other sleeves. I wanted to give this pattern a try as it was similar to the style I wanted to achieve straight out of the packet with no alterations needed.

For my first version I used a beautiful Pigeonwishes cotton seersucker fabric. It has a fun modern floral print on a striped almost psychedelic background. The fabric was easy to cut and sew. I followed the pattern exactly and did not make any modifications. As a result the sleeves are slightly long on me but due to the elasticated cuff finish, I can push up the sleeves when required. I also kept the length the same, as I knew it would be longer on me (I’m 5’2″ approx) and I wanted a maxi ankle length so that I wouldn’t have to layer with leggings in the summer. I made a size 10 which was perfect, it has a loose flowing shape around the waist so I went by my bust measurement.

I used a cute Paige Joanna X Pigeon Wishes button at the back, this colour is called Blossom and is in a flower shape which matches really well with the pattern on the dress. The button fastening is easy to sew and perfect for beginner/intermediate sewists.

For my second dress, I used a Fabric Godmother viscose lawn which I had stashed some time ago. I absolutely loved this Joni print which one of my Instagram followers recognised as a vintage Hungarian design. I wanted to have the print going down the skirt of the dress so cut this on the crossgrain. The bodice and sleeves were cut on the straight grain.

One thing to be aware of is that the bodice is curved at the front lower edge. I considered straightening out but decided not to in the end. With a print like this, the curve was made more obvious and I had to resew the edge a couple of times to ensure the pattern was symmetrical. I suspect its not quite perfect but probably not noticeable to the layperson.

I wanted to keep the flow of the design in the skirt so opted for a simple gathered skirt with no tiers. For this I just cut two rectangles as wide as my remaining fabric would allow and attached the pockets as per instructions. It’s important to allow enough room to be able to walk, so I made my rectangles wider than the original skirt piece.

This fabric was a bit more slippery to cut and sew with but behaved fairly well overall! Fabric Godmother viscoses are very soft and feel beautiful and luxurious to wear. I plan to wear this in Spring and Summer mostly but it’s also nice layered as shown below.

My bag is from La Bien Hecha, a sustainable bag manufacturer based in Malaga. I have several of their bags and they are all beautiful and well made. They are a pleasure to use! Click here (affiliate link) if you would like to see more of their bags.