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I’m proud to be a Minerva Ambassador and in this post I’m delighted to share my Easter weekend dress.

It’s so effortlessy floaty and with a touch of retro style it feels so on trend. It’s an easy hack of the Nina Lee Bloomsbury Blouse and I’m going to share how I recreated my retro style.

Firstly, let’s talk about this beautiful floral georgette fabric. It went beyond my expectations and here’s why; it stitched without any fraying and was great to work with, it ironed on a medium heat to a superb finish and felt so drapey and feminine to wear.

I loved the blue fabric with the small all over floral design. The mention of georgette can put some sewiest off, please try this one and the result is amazing! The size of the floral on my dress meant that I didn’t need to pattern match and the frills looked fabulous in this design too.

The fabric is deadstock which means you are helping the environment and also getting a great priced fabric from Minerva too. It comes in five colourways, check out the mustard and the black background designs for Autumn/Winter makes too.

I made my dress from 2.5metres of fabric, the width is 143cm/56in which gave me the width to recreate those vintage sleeves and dress length!

The fabric was described as light and I was expecting to add a lining but when fitting it turned out it didn’t have any sheerness to the fabric and didn’t need a lining. This means my dress is a perfect cover up for warm days or evenings.

My inspiration for my dress came from the current full, gathered, statement sleeves seen online and on the high street this Spring. I chose the Bloomsbury blouse as a base as I loved the yoke and frill design and high collar.

To recreate the dress from the blouse pattern I added three changes –
• I made the sleeves three times the width at the cuff by tracing off the sleeve pattern and cutting the sleeve into thirds up to the last cm of the pattern. I could then pivot the sleeve out at shoulder on my fabric until the cuff was three time the original size. I made sure the pattern pieces were all equal, pinned it onto the fabric and cut it out.
• To extend the blouse to a dress I extended the line of the blouse using a ruler until the edge of the fabric, this was just to my knee. I’m 5’6”.
• I added fullness to the back by adding in two pieces to the centre back fold. I did this by tracing off the back pattern, cutting off where the blouse finished. Then taking the skirt pattern and cutting it in two equal parts. The piece on the left which attached to the front, I left as it was but the right piece to the back centre seam I added three inches to the right hem and then followed the line to top of the pattern where I had cut the blouse part off from. This created an additional triangle. This gave me some fullness in the back and extra swooshy-ness to my dress.

I love the sleeves and the shape of this dress. I think it’s perfect for the fabric and for me it’s so versatile. I wore it for our family Easter dinner but I could wear it to an occasion, party or going out for drinks or dinner.

Thank-you Minerva for the opportunity to stitch so a gorgeous fabric!

Samantha x

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