A Real Anna

Hey Peeps!

It’s no secret that I love the By Hand London Anna dress, I’ve made six now. I’ve been wanting to make a maxi version for ages but after trying out the Anna skirt and not loving it on me I was a bit unsure how I’d like the maxi version. I’ve recently discovered Swedish Tracing paper (many thank to Tilly and the Buttons) so I used this to trace the pattern again but I graded it out from the size 8 to the size 16 at the hips. Once I’d cut it out I then pinned the pattern pieces together to see how the skirt looked and I loved it.

I’d been hunting for some blue and yellow rose print fabric for ages and for some reason Google threw this…..

……up as a choice! There is a teeny bit of blue and yellow (I’m still looking for blue and yellow rose print if you know of any?) but not what I had in mind. Still I was rather taken with it so I ordered the last four meters from Shan’s Fabrics knowing that it would make the perfect maxi Anna. Here she is….

…..and I love her! I’m calling this my Apocalypse Nowish dress (I was watching season four of Angel while I was making this, Lorne is my favourite). This is almost totally a By Hand London Anna the only KB addition I made was adding a waistband , I just like how it looks (plus no worries about all the seams matching up!). I went with the one thigh high spilt at the level suggested on the pattern which I think is a little high but if you’ve got it flaunt it! (Considering how much I hate my legs I do make a lot of dresses that show them off, not sure what that says about me?)

I used some more new to me techniques to finish off this dress including machine finishing the sleeves without the stitching showing on the outside which I got from the Coletterie and attaching the lining to the zip by machine which I got from Sewaholic. I was going to attempt to hem this with a blind stitch but chickened out and did it by hand in the end! All the skirt pieces were finished with a french seams except for the back and the thigh high split, for those I used this lovely yellow bias binding that I got for Tatty’s PJ’s. I like that there’s a little flash of yellow every now and then when I walk. Considering how unsure I was about this skirt type I’m totally in love with it now and I can imagine lots more in my future. Mmmmmmm a whole wardrobe of Anna’s!

I did try to talk some proper outfit pictures as I wore this dress at the first available opportunity…..this months book club meeting but I discovered that my camera and phone are no longer friends! For some reason I couldn’t get the connection established which lets me use my phone as a remote which is how I’ve been taking pictures up until now. I didn’t have time to faff about with timers so I decided to take these pictures instead.

I’d also like to announce that Wendy from The Vintage Pattern Files is the winner of the Pattern Pyramid. Congratulations! Drop me a message with your address and I’ll get the patterns sent off to you.

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