A chambray Louisa

Although I did battle with my last version of Compagnie M's Louisa dress it became one of my absolute favourites and with the weather being warmer I felt it was high time for another one.

This time I've used some Andover chambray from my local quilt shop.  The contrast fabric was one I knew I liked but was worried it might look a bit drab if I made something with it by itself.  The two together was a great combination.

This time I cut the 3/4 sleeves on the pattern where it bent slightly to make a shorter sleeve (as the instructions suggest you can do) and hemmed as normal.  I was also a bit of a rebel as instead of sewing the side seams first then setting in the sleeves, I sewed the sleeves on first and then sewed the side seams.  I've decided that's the way I much prefer to tackle sleeves.

I am super proud of the invisible zipper on this one!  I didn't even need to unpick anything!  As always before tackling this I watched the tutorial by Colette to refresh how to do it in my mind.  I made the size two and it fits nicely.

I left off the piping on the pocket this time, just because I'm lazy.  I had originally planned to get some big red/pink buttons but I think the blue ones work nicely. As soon as Freya put the dress on she was quite taken with the buttons and I think she's holding onto it in nearly every photo I took!