Gemma’s Lyra Dress

Last month Gemma had the stunning Lady McElroy Cobra Corsage viscose challis from the Luxury Box and used it to make the Tilly and the Buttons Lyra Dress.

I know I say it every month, but Hayley has really smashed it with this month’s Luxury Box fabric! She did send us a sneaky picture when ordering it for the boxes, but it didn’t compare to actually feeling it in real life, so silky smooth! The print is very botanical and certainly fitting for a Halloween theme, and I knew I wanted to make something that not only showed off the beautiful fabric but that I could wear on a regular basis, as it is just too lovely to ‘keep for best!’

I decided to go for the Tilly and the Buttons Lyra dress, as it is my go-to wardrobe staple pattern at the moment. For a shirt dress it is a fairly simple construction, made easier by Tilly’s very clear instructions. I love the collar on it, having made quite a few shirts in my time this one is definitely one of the better ones. It’s a great wardrobe staple, so versatile as it can be made in a variety of fabrics. I had high hopes that the elegance of this fabric would make for one very high fashion looking dress indeed!

I must admit I was a little apprehensive about using this fabric. It is certainly one of the most slippery I have used, and I was nervous about how much it might move throughout all the construction processes – I wouldn’t want to not cut out the pattern pieces accurately, and pondered whether when sewing it would cause me some headaches! However, taking it slow when cutting out was key (luckily I only had one piece that was a little off, and that was easily fixable!) and it actually was lovely to sew. I do recommend pressing your seams at every stage too – this fabric is absolutely amazing but does not allow you to cut corners if you want it looking good, so no quick shortcut sewing I’m afraid!

I made a size 8, which fits over my bust really well (and is one of the major factors when making a well fitting shirt.) I went for short sleeves, that way I could wear a long sleeved top underneath when colder. I also wanted to reserve as much fabric as possible for the skirt – as I wanted to fully show off the amazing fabric, I decided to make my skirt a maxi length. For this I literally used the entire fabric that was left over after cutting out my bodice pieces, although it did work out a little too long though, so a big hem was needed! I used small, plain black buttons which is very unusual for me (as I love making them a big feature of my makes!) but that goes to show just how much I wanted the fabric to do the talking!

I’m so pleased with how this looks, it is an actual dream to wear, so swishy! I think it is a pattern/fabric match made in heaven, and I got so many compliments from people when photographing it! One thing to note – it is slightly sheer if stood in back light, but as I usually wear shorts or a slip underneath my dresses it doesn’t bother me, but you might want to take that into consideration when deciding what to use your fabric for. Other than that I’m in love with this dress and will be living my best swishy-dress life!