Finished (somewhat modified) Cashmerette Upton dress.

Fabric is Echino Hill cotton from Pitt Trading and rayon bemberg lining from the Remnant Warehouse.

Bodice is McCall’s M6927 because apparently I have narrow shoulders (e.g. I have to take out 4" or so from the back neck and also lots from front centre) and fitting is such a pain that I didn’t want to have to start from scratch when I’d already spent time getting that one to fit. Then I couldn’t be bothered lowering the neckline when I really liked the fabric and wanted to see more of the print.

The cotton was nice to sew and feels nice (not scratchy). I saw it on sale and loved it :) This is made out of 2.5m of the main fabric, with some careful pattern placement. The stripe matching suffered from this, although I don’t really know what I could have done about the gores. The bodice stripes match up mostly (even over the back zip!!!) so I’m fine with it, tbh.

Waistband is reduced to 1", which I’m on the fence about. The previous Upton that I made had the standard waistband and I thought maybe it looked too high, hence the decision to narrow it. Tried to get the waistband to have lots of the red birds, with mixed success (limited fabric!). Skirt is straight size 18 view B from the Upton pattern, because I found in my previous version that the gores created an appropriate amount of swish but *without* blowing up on windy days. (Big fan of this.)

Hemmed by overlocking the raw edge, folding up an inch and then machine sewing it. Hems are boring.

I really like the pockets.

The rayon bemberg was a poor choice for lining this because it’s too dark and not really stable enough to stay under. You can see in the second photo that there’s really obvious visible lining around the neck. It’s also a bit hot and clammy and was a pain to sew. I’m thinking of taking it out and replacing it with a beige cotton or something. When I do that, I’ll fix up some of the other wonky bits. (This was a bit of a rush job - finished sewing and then was out the door to the social occasion I was wearing it to.)

Photos by partner. (Tips on training partners to take better craft project photos welcomed!)