Oh yes! You  probably know by now that a book with patterns in it its very hard for me to resist! And if it is a Great British Sewing Bee Book, now that’s even harder to resist for me!  After the first two books which I was a bit disappointed about  I got the last one once I have seen some of  Claire Hardie aka The Trifty Stitcher garments from  the book that she shared with  us during her 30 Day #BeeMine Fashion with Fabric challenge. Well also the Walk away dress on the show had a thing or two with  it.

To be honest I have had the Walk Away Dress on my mine for a long time. I have seen the pattern for ages on the Butterick catalogue, but could not figure out how it would go together. Also a little internet research showed that the Butterick pattern had loads of issues and proved hard to fit for so many fellow seamstresses that I could not decide to spend my coins for the pattern.  I am glad I did not as the pattern in the book is just awesome! I cut a straight size 10. The book recommends for my measurements  for the bust fall between 10 and 12  so I decided to use the finished garment measurements  to device which size to cut.  Also on comparing the details on the two patterns, I do prefer the one on the book!

For this project I used fabric I bought at the famous by now Abakhan. I used ready made bias tape, although if I did not have it already, I would have tried to make it myself as I have a little bias tape maker from Simplicity and I love using it! LOL Yes if there is a sewing gadget, I will resist it for a while but end up buying it! I also had the buttons. I know I could have used red ones but I just wanted a bit more blue . Blue is my colour! Ha ha !

I roughly followed the instructions in the book, by know I like to think I am getting pretty good at putting a garment together. I finished the seams with the overlocker after I sew them together.  With my edge stitch food it was easy peasy to get that topstitching so close to the edge!

It did not take me that long to do it! I mean it took longest to sew the bias tape in place. I added it in one go, just sheer laziness  and the help if clover clips! Oh yes, I did buy myself a box of them! But you know what, it was money well spent, because my bias tape is perfect! Rrrrr….!

I am so glad I did size down as the dress would have been so loose on me. There are a few adjustments I will make for my next version. I will need to  change to line of the armhole to rise it a bit. As you see in  the pictures it has a low shoulder, do not particularly like that, will take the pattern by about 1.5cm in that area. I will also use  a heavier fabric. This one just sticks to me like there is no tomorrow and a slip does not help the issue!  But it is a perfect little number for summer.

So far, at the time of writing this I have already made  three garments from  this book and have planned more!  By applying some logic to this, I can say that this is my favourite pattern book I currently own, as it the only one I have already made so many projects! I will keep you update on how I get along with more of the projects in the book!