Great British Sewing Bee - week 3, the walkaway dress

This weeks challenge was the walkaway dress. I didn't have a pattern for the dress but I found lots of diagrams online and I worked from one of those to develop a pattern.

Here are the pieces, cut out and with just the bodice darts stitched.

Here is the dress, stitched together but before the bias binding has been sewn all around. About a year ago I had bought a little gadget for making bias binding but had never used it. This was my opportunity to try it. I must say, measuring, cutting and folding the bias binding probably took longer than making the dress. However I now know how to do it and I like it better than bought bias binding which makes the dress look very much like an apron.

So, here is Serena wearing the walkaway dress. This wasn't a quick dress to make. The simple summer dress was much easier. The original idea of the dress is that the neckline is wide enough to just slip over the head without fastening. This wasn't possible for Serena as dolls heads are bigger in proportion to the body and the neckline would have ended up half way down her chest! So I had to leave one shoulder seam open and fasten it with a press stud. I love this fabric. I bought 40 years ago when I was living in Jamaica to make curtains. It is hand screen printed with a design of Jamaican plants. It didn't fit any windows when I brought it back to the UK so I've kept it safely all these years. Last summer I used most of it to make myself a summer jacket and now Serena has the walkaway dress from it - so I think this fulfils the make over challenge as well.

Finally ...

I wasn't sure I could make a loop button fastening on a doll's dress. But I used some elasticated gold cord for the loops and that worked well.

I don't think they said on the programme how it was hemmed. I turned up a small single hem and stitched it with a decorative stitch which looked good and stopped any fraying. It is a long hem on a circular skirt, I'm glad I was only making it doll size.