For my Make Nine this year I was determined to make every pattern from the book Love at First Stitch by Tilly & the Buttons. Having already tackled the Delphine skirt many times and the Mimi blouse in the spring it was time to make the Megan Dress.
To be honest I’ve actually sort of made the Megan once upon a time. Way back when I was looking for an easy top to make (this was before I found Simplicity 1364). I thought the Megan dress had the right look, so I changed it up a bit to be a top to go with a Delphine skirt I’d made.
This time, however, I wanted a go at the actual Megan Dress, no hacks. We’ll almost no hacks.
A PeterPan Megan
When I added the Megan Dress to my Make Nine list I already had a plan in mind. I was inspired by the navy polka dot version in the book.
As it turned out I had some lovely navy quilting cotton that had little white hearts all over it. It was perfect for this project.
I also knew that somewhere in my button stash I had little white heart buttons that would be a great addition to this fabric.
While I could add a fake button placket, like one of the hack examples in the book, I thought the addition of buttons would look better if there was a collar.
Needless to say, I decided to draft my own Peter Pan collar for this dress. Drafting my own collar piece wasn’t too hard. In fact, I recorded the whole process and hope to share with you a tutorial on how to do this within the next month.
Once I added the collar and buttons I felt that I could still embellish this dress even more. So, I added rickrack!
I’ve only ever added rick rack to a few items I’ve made my niece. The rick rack was a nice addition and I really should use trimmings more often to add an extra layer of detail to my projects.
The Construction
I was really surprised how fast this dress came together, especially since I Frenched seamed the entire thing.
The only thing that I would say took a while was the collar drafting, as I wanted to be sure that I did it right.
| Sewing Summary | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | August 26 |  |
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| Pattern: | Megan Dress – Love at First Stitch | |||||
| Version: | 3 Variations | |||||
| Size: | Size 6 | |||||
| Notes & Modification: | Drafted a PeterPan collar | |||||
| Recommendations: | Things to keep in mind for next time | |||||
| Difficulty: | Intermediate | Rating: | ||||
I’ll admit it before I started this project I wasn’t 100% sure about this streamlined style on me.
However, once I was all done and tried the dress on I was super pleased with the fit and the look of the dress.
My husband really liked the look of it and even suggested I make another.
A Contrasting Megan
Since the dress has an empire style waistline, the bodice pieces take up relatively little amounts of fabric. Therefore I decided for the second version I do a contrasting top and bottom, like one of the variations in the book. This would give me the opportunity to use some of the fabrics in my stash that I only had one yard or less of for the bodice.
It was still the middle of August when I was working on this so, of course, I gravitated to the pink hues in the fabric stash. In the end, I choose a floral cotton fabric for the top bodice and a pink almost taffeta-like fabric for the lower half of the dress.
I really like this dress and the color. My only regret is that I didn’t make it earlier in the summer to get more wear out of it.
A Megan Jumper
The Megan dress is so easy to sew up that I knew while cutting the second version that I wanted to make a third one.
Realizing that autumn would be just around the corner I opted to make a sleeveless version of the dress.
This meant I could wear it as during summer and then as a jumper in the autumn time.
I also tried to go for colors that transitioned well. Wouldn’t you know it, I had a lovely checkered print with creams, pinks, and teals, that was just perfect.
Also, I was super excited to realize that this dress was the first dress that had a teal color that would match the teal shoes I had in my wardrobe for over two years and have never worn.
I Absolutely love it!
I’m super happy with these Megan dresses, I can’t even try to choose my favorite each one is super cute.
One of my favorite things about these dresses is that while they’re cute they are still really professional looking and are great to wear to the office.
I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to make the Megan dress, but I absolutely love it.
So, that’s another make nine projects checked off the list. I’d love to know in the comments below how your make nine is coming along.
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