Mara dress

Recently I'd found this lovely chambray-esque fabric at my local quilt shop.  It came in a few colours but I was drawn mostly to the blue.  I managed to squeeze two dresses out of it, and this was the first.  I LOVE this fabric. I can think of so many other things it would be perfect for but I think a whole wardrobe of clothes in this one fabric might be a bit much.

I really like the Compagnie M patterns and I'd wanted to make the Mara blouse/dress pattern for while.  I was a bit nervous about the round yoke and lining up the button loops but it all worked out well.  Making it a dress instead of a blouse needed a little bit of altering the pattern but the directions were very clear on how to do this.

It took me a while to settle on the right buttons until I found these Liberty covered ones.  They finish it off nicely.  I'm not sure I got the pleats in the right place as I've seen them further apart on other versions but it still looks sweet.  I opted for the butterfly sleeves as coming into the Australian summer I prefer to have a little bit of coverage over the little one's shoulders.  I wasn't sold on them while I was sewing them but after seeing the dress on Freya I think they are very cute.

Annoyingly the first time Freya wore the dress she got a stain on it which hasn't washed out completely :( I think it's not too noticeable so she can still get away with wearing it which is lucky as I really like it.

Cheeky!