REFASHIONED: Fibre Mood Holly

I refashioned an unloved dress into a Fibre Mood Holly! (affiliate link) Sometimes things just don’t work out and earlier this summer I made a dress as part of a sewalong. Sadly, my figure + choice of print made it look more nightie than amazing summer dress (scroll to the bottom to see), so I put it away in a box. But cotton lawn is ideal for blouses, and I thought this luscious print would look pretty nice.

Disclaimer: I host sewalongs (free to watch) as part of my work with Fibre Mood. If the pattern is not a quick make, sometimes I make test versions (like this one) beforehand to see what parts I should concentrate on and what tips I can best give! I am not paid to make the test versions and I provide my own fabric for these.

Fibre Mood Holly pattern details 

Official description: The ultra demure ankle-length dress trend is far from over, and the Holly dress pays homage to this trend with perfection! This pattern just had to have a standing collar. In keeping with the style it features subtle gathers at the neckline and has been finished with an invisible zip. Not convinced about the length? Altering this pattern to your taste is easy!

The Holly dress is from issue 6 and is a Fibre Mood favourite. I think it is when Fibre Mood actually came to my attention!

What I did 

• Pattern modifications: sliced it off near the hip and turned it into a top. lengthened by 7cm, because I like to be able to tuck my blouses in. The V neck I made shallower by 1cm. It made all the difference to me and is at the perfect point now.
• Size: 36 (my bust measurement is 82cm).
• Needle: microtex 60/9
• Zip: 20cm invisible zip harvested from another refashioned make (yet to be blogged!)
• Buttons: 6x 10mm grey mother of pearl from my stash. The buttons call for 11mm, but you can choose what you want as long as it looks proportional to the cuff. Put them on the cuff and see how it looks! I’m really happy with the grey. Initially I thought red or black, but they looked a little too contrasting.

Fabric

Storrs London is a brand that has really picked up in the home sewing market in the last year. As far as I know they only do cotton lawns, but the prints are great. I came across this particular red chelsea garden print and colourway when I saw my friend Brooke made a dress from it, and so it was always on my mind to get some! You can see what she made here. FYI the hand feel is similar to a Liberty London tana lawn. You can buy it from the Storrs London website, and Minerva also stocks it.

Before the refashion

In case you’re interested in seeing what the dress looked like before. As I mentioned before, sometimes things just don’t turn out as I want! I’m on a mission to do more #makeyourstash and refashion where I can. The dress was kind of OK with jeans, but I wore it a grand total of zero times.

Fibre Mood Holly verdict

I’m much happier with a blouse, and IMO cotton lawn + blouses are a dream made in heaven. My friend suggested that I could wear a long sleeve thermal under it to keep warm. These kinds of sleeves with the button cuffs aren’t ever going to travel up the arm and the high neck means no risk of the thermal peeking out, so I think it’s a wonderful solution to what is typically a summer fabric.

I have another refashion coming up soon so stay tuned!

Till next time 

Kate xx