TL; DR – Support Black pattern designers, this pattern is awesome, but neck and collar facings still SUCK.

I’ve leaned in heavily to this whole sewing thing. I’ve started listening to the podcast Stitch, Please and it has been a delight. I’ve bough pattern weights from Thanks! I Made Them! which are gorgeous and amazing. And I heard about the Black History Months Pattern Designers Challenge. The challenge is, during the month of February to make something using a pattern created by a Black designer. The webpage has an amazing set of links to Black pattern designers, along with discount codes, etc.

I had been looking for a while for a nice handkerchief hem dress for a while and found the Anna by Style Sew Me, a Black indie pattern designer! And I had this LOVELY soft cotton floral fabric (seriously, it’s almost like silk) that was PERFECT for the dress. So, for the first time EVER, I completed a project IN A DAY.

A DAY PEOPLE!!!!

I decided to make a size large, rather than XL which is what the measurements would tell me because I figured there was MORE than enough ease in it, and I didn’t want it too loose. The directions were super-simple, and I even got CRAZY and did everything with French seams to avoid the inevitable fraying. Basically, a French seam hides the edges. Except, they require you to add to the seam allowance.

Which of course I didn’t do.

On the one hand, if you keep the French seam measurements the same as you do the whole dress, it won’t matter because everything has been adjusted the same way “automatically.” Except, of course, around the neck. I would have loved a deeper V but that was the sacrifice I ended up making because I was too lazy to do math. And then the neck facing didn’t fit and I should have just done a bias tape finish.

I highly recommend this patterns. I am clearly dreaming of warmer days ahead and possible garden parties or summer weddings with this dress, and so it will live in my closet until then, but wow, what a fun make and what a lovely dress! I even waited to take the picture so I didn’t look like crap after sewing all day!