Hot on the heels of the D&G-inspired summer dress, here come her little sister: the border print dress. Having figured out pattern placement with my previous dress, I could not help sewing exactly the same dress in a different fabric… Typical!

Pattern Used: for the bodice, view A of Simplicity 8645 (S8645), which is a 1950’s vintage re-edited top pattern. For the skirt I simply used two gathered rectangles (fabric width x length required, around 90cm here). I much prefer circle skirts to gathered one, but the gathered option in the only one that works with a border fabric like this one.

Sizing: size 10 for my UK 8/ FR 36/ US 2, this is my standard size for Vogue/Butterick/ McCall’s/ Simplicity patterns, despite the size chart telling me I should be a 12/14. I am an E cup and did not need an FBA.

Level of difficulty: easy but a bit of patience required as the bodice is entirely lined.

Fabric used: a lightweight cotton with a gorgeous border print, found on bennytex.fr. I find border print fabric very difficult to source in UK and France (much easier in the US), so I always get a bit overexcited when I find one!

Changes to the pattern: for the bodice I replaced the Peter Pan collar by a self-drafted scarf collar. I made not other changes to the pattern. The skirt is self drafted but frankly no rocket science here. I placed an invisible zip at the back, I did a bit of pattern matching for the bodice but not for the skirt.

Love rating: maybe sewing the exact same design as my D&G-inspired dress was not necessary, but this dress is very pretty and lovely to wear. The pattern is more casual so I tend to wear it in the day rather than to go out.

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• Summer sewing: the D&G-inspired dress