Nina Lee / Park Lane dress (and hacks!)

I've loved this summer trend of floral dresses and trainers (anything with trainers is a winner in my book) and I wanted to make a special, bright & summery dress to end the season before we go into more muted colours for Autumn. This BEE-AUT-I-FUL fabric is the violet blush floral cotton poplin from The Rag Shop. I've never worn violet/purple before but as soon as I saw this fabric earlier in the summer I fell in love with it. But then was scared to cut into it with my amateur skills in case I didn't do it justice...do you ever have the feeling that a fabric is just too lovely?

The pattern I finally chose was the gorgeous, feminine Nina Lee Park Lane dress. With a few hacks...

Hacking

I'm new to pattern hacking and currently taking inspiration from across instagram. All of my Park Lane hacks were 100% inspired by the brilliant @selfassemblyrequired who made a gorgeous version earlier this year.

1. Shoulders & Bodice

I love the way the bodice is shaped with tiny gathers at the front waistline on this pattern. I made a size 14 and graded out to a size 16 at the waist. Here's my first toile, you'll see that I tried the shoulder ruffle (right - in pink) and the standard puff shoulder without ruffle (left - calico), both at elbow length. From this I decided that I didn't want the ruffle (I've gone a bit ruffle-tastic this year with a few versions of #thenoratank from @sewbakemake and the #georgiaturtleneck from @MimiGstyle so thought I should have a change).

I also decided to lengthen the bodice by 1.5" and to make a narrow shoulder adjustment of 1cm per side using the (really excellent) instructions from By Hand London Bodice Fitting Companion.

Toile 2 (below) was a little tight across my back so I added 0.5cm to each side seam - next time I might size up to a 16 and try a small bust adjustment instead.

2. Sleeves

Seeing the elbow-length sleeves, I realised I have this length sleeves already on both my Friday Pattern Company Wilder Gown and Tilly & the Buttons Indigo dress, so I decided to go with a shorter cuffed sleeve for a change. But I was looking for more puff at the shoulder. I slashed & spread the short sleeve pattern by 2cm diagonally (see sleeve hack 1) ....but I then decided I wanted more puff at the sleeve cuff too so I tried a vertical slash and spread across the whole sleeve piece (see sleeve hack 2), which gave me puff at both the shoulder and cuff.

Sleeve hack 1 Sleeve hack 2

Toile 2

I also made the cuffs slightly tighter by taking 2.5 cm off the width. Obviously ideally I would have toiled in the same fabric throughout to get a true representation but I didn't have a big enough old bed sheet :)

3. Skirt

I made the skirt in a 16 to give me more room over my tummy/bum which are a little on the...umm...round side, and reduced the length by 2". I loved the simple skirt and side zip, but wasn't sure that it flattered me. So I straightened the (originally curved) bottom hem and measured the new length, and then cut a ruffle piece at x1.5 this bottom hem length. I'm so glad I added this - it gives extra flounce, looks better with trainers (which I wear 99% of the time!) and hopefully detracts from my (often bloated) tummy.

This was my first time inserting an invisible zip on the side, but I have to say that all of my zip practice for the By Hand London Anna dress (see previous post) is definitely paying off. For me, pre-ironing the zip with a cool iron and hand-tacking the zip in first is the way forward.

I didn't add pockets because a) I thought they would change the outline of the skirt and b) I didn't know if there was a way to add an in-seam pocket if you have a side zip - does anyone else know?

To sum up, I love it! Thank you Nina Lee for a gorgeous pattern with really clear instructions and lovely design features such as the gathers at the waist, the side zip and the button & loop at the back. Thank you to The Rag Shop for the totally gorgeous fabric and thank you to Elisalex @ By Hand London and Alice from Alice & Co Patterns for your online and in-person courses which have given me the confidence to fit bodices and play around with sleeves. And finally thank you to Emily @ Self Assembly Required for the original creative inspiration. I'm wearing this today on my 10th wedding anniversary and I feel like a million dollars!