Gertrude Made 8294 by Me

Hey there, everyone!  Lovely weekend, wasn’t it?  It was for me anyway.  I caught up on some sleep, caught up on some laundry, and got a chance to blog.  Now I feel I am having quite a productive start to my Monday morning.

I mentioned in my last post, I made something last week.  It was a dress in the cutest Cotton & Steel fabric that I got from fabric.com.  This was my first go at the Simplicity 8294 pattern, designed by Gertrude Made.  I had been a fan of Gertrude Made over on Instagram for a good couple of years now.  She makes lovely dresses, mostly in vintage bark cloth, and I’ve once or twice entered a contest to try and win one of her designs.  I have also, once or twice, contemplated purchasing my very own Gertrude Made Frock.  She’s based out of Australia, so I figured the shipping would make the dress a lot more than I would care to spend for an everyday dress.  (Even though her dresses can be worn for all occasions, any that I would buy would be for everyday wear.  Almost always an over dresser over here.  I’m still hoping for that chance to win one or buy one myself.  One day.)

I was super excited to see on her Instagram account last year that she had collaborated with Simplicity and there would soon be a Gertrude Made pattern that I could buy myself.  I googled and waited for it to show up at my local fabric shop.  I finally found it at Wal-Mart a couple of months back, and didn’t even bother to wait for a Joann’s pattern sale.  I truly adore this style of dress!  You know what else?  I just adored this pattern!  It didn’t take long for me to have my very own Gertrude Made dress, made by me.  I’m sure the real thing that she would make would look much more professional, but despite a couple hiccups, the dress I made was a fun make, and I don’t think my amateur attempt came out that badly.  The pictures, on the other hand… Ug!

About those hiccups…  First off, I accidentally cut through the collar seam in the center front while I was clipping the curves and had to reroute some stitching a little bit to hid the mistaken snip.  Then when the dress was all done, I decided that the fit would be much better if I would have cut off about an inch from the bodice.  I almost always cut off an inch from the bodice of dresses.  Why did it take me so long to figure that I needed to with this one as well?  I spent about an hour of seam ripping to undo part of the zipper, adjust the front darts with the tabs, and cut off an inch from the bodice.  I sewed it back together, redid my zipper, and it is now the perfect fit.  (Note to self, always cut some off that bodice!)

A note on sizing.  I was just over the finished measurements for the size 10, but like the last make of mine, I was worried going up a size would make the dress too baggy – I like them to be more on the very fitted side.  So instead, I went with 1/2 in. seam allowances where 5/8 in. seam allowances were needed and made my adjustments accordingly.  The fit is perfect!  The only thing I don’t like are the buttons that I picked out for it.  They are too tan.  I had a very hard time finding buttons.  The pattern said four 1 and 3/4 in. buttons, and I found only one of these in an awful color.  Plus when I saw the size, I thought there was no way that had to be right.  I got four 3/4 in. buttons instead, and they worked out just fine.  I am going to find some that match the collar and the tabs so these that I have on it now, won’t stick around for that long.

I really enjoyed making this dress.  It’s been awhile since I have not had to make a gathered skirt and I really liked doing a couple of pleats for once.  Ha ha!  I used to hate pleats.  Not so much anymore.  🙂

Thanks for reading, and I’d love any and all feedback.

Linking up with: Sew Can Do, Creative Mondays