The Emery Dress by Christine Haynes...

The story of my Emery dress. I went a little off piste...

It seems I'm a little late to the party with the Emery dress, in fact I'm late to the party with Christine Haynes patterns. 

I came across this pattern whilst on the hunt for a dress style that I've been after for a while and my Instagram pals came to the

rescue! In fact it was Amy over at What Amy Made, that did something similar, who recommended the Emery, thanks Amy :-)

This was my inspiration
*image from Pintrest*...

So, what did I want? I wanted a dress that was gathered at the waist but loose in the bodice. I also wanted it longer in length then most dress patterns I had. I guess you could describe it as a more relaxed 50's style dress. 

...and this is my
finished piece.

                   

I had never used a Christine Haynes pattern before, and although some of the terminology was more for an intermediate dress maker rather than a beginner, I was impressed with how easy this dress came together. The simple design also allowed me to go a little off piste, with confidence.

To get the "relaxed" fit, I did a couple of things. Firstly, I sized up by 1 size and I also left out the waist and back darts. I did keep the bust darts, mainly because the material was very heavy and I didn't think it would fall well without some shape in that area. Looking at the picture below you can't really see the darts, I think they're a little low, but that was completely my own fault. 

 

Due to leaving out the darts at the back of the dress, the pattern matching didn't go to plan at the side seems. I felt I had planned it well, but the pattern on the fabric was a little tricky. 

More pattern matching woes on the skirt of the dress, which completely flummoxed me, must try harder next time but I still blame the fabric! Pretty good fabric though, hey?? So all is forgiven there. You can also see in the picture above that I didn't insert a zip. This is because I up sized, bonus! FYI; I HATE inserting zips.

I also HATE inserting sleeves...

... but these fellas went in like a dream.

Must learn how to pose.

I am so pleased to have found this dress pattern. In principle it's a really basic design, which will give you freedom to make it your own, I'm already planing my next one. I must do one in plaid, which was my intention this time but I couldn't leave this fabric in my local fabric shop. 

Almost forgot about the pockets, gotta love a good pocket. 

Go and make the Emery and make it your own. I'd love to see it.

Amy x