{"id":9894,"date":"2022-08-22T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sixmignons.com\/?p=9894"},"modified":"2022-08-22T08:11:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T07:11:55","slug":"sewing-with-croft-mill-my-favourite-summer-dress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixmignons.com\/en\/2022\/08\/22\/sewing-with-croft-mill-my-favourite-summer-dress\/","title":{"rendered":"Sewing with Croft Mill: my favourite summer dress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The M8211 dress pattern<\/strong><\/a> was my great discovery of Spring 2022, largely due to my new-found puff sleeves addiction. But this summer has been too hot to allow for any sleeves at all, so I explored the sleeveless version of the pattern<\/strong>. Matched with a gorgeous cotton voile fabric from Croft Mill<\/a>, it turned into my favourite dress of the summer!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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My Spring obsession turned into a summer one<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you well know of you follow this blog, puff sleeves were my obsession this Spring (see here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a> if you don\u2019t believe me!). The M8211 was a perfect candidate and I made two versions of view B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When I bought the pattern, it hadn\u2019t even crossed my mind that I could ever sew sleeveless option C. But when the heatwave stroke, I desperately searched my pattern library for the most lightweight dress possible<\/strong>\u2026 and there it was!!<\/p>\n\n\n

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M8211 pattern review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I fully reviewed the M8211 pattern here<\/a><\/strong> so I won\u2019t bore you repeating the same. Overall it is a lovely dress to make, perfectly drafted and with clear instructions<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing I would highlight is that the sizing is on the large side<\/strong>. I had to reduce the size of the front elastic and take 2.5cm of width at the back, despite using my usual McCall\u2019s size 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way the pattern is drafted to go from the puff sleeved to the sleeveless dress is very clever, using mostly the same pattern pieces. Huge bonus as it means you don\u2019t have to recut the entire thing!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drafting a tiered skirt<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I wanted a big, floaty skirt<\/strong>. So I did not use the skirt from the pattern but instead I drafted my own tiered skirt<\/strong>. That said there are tiers in version A of the pattern, you could definitely use them. I personally did not see the point of cutting pattern pieces since I had a very precise idea of what I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n

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My skirt is 90cm long so each tier is 30cm high (plus 1cm seam and 2cm hem allowance). The shirring is based one a 2x ratio, so the first tier is 1.5m wide, the second 3m, the third 6m. So in summary, based on 150cm wide fabric:<\/p>\n\n\n\n