Laura’s Hinterland Dress
You know when you get a fabric, and you know immediately what it’s gonna be? Well, that is exactly what happened to Hayley, Gemma and I with this dreamy double-gauze.
As soon as I saw it and felt the softness against my skin, it was destined to be made into a loose-fitting dress – simple and comfortable that was easy to layer and effortless to style, with extra room for big Sunday dinners!
My mind instantly went to the Tilly and the Buttons Indigo dress. That was until I was reading through the magazine to find that Hayley had beaten me to it! It looked so gorgeous and exactly what I wanted. I racked my brain to think of something similar… enter the Sew Liberated Hinterland Dress.
Gemma and I always run our ideas by each other before we begin our make each month so that we don’t end up making the same thing. Now not only did we both have the same initial idea for the Indigo dress… but when I mentioned the Hinterland Dress, Gemma replied that she was also thinking that! Of the thousands of sewing patterns, funny how all three of us came up with the same ones!
The good thing about the Hinterland Dress is that there are tons of design options and hacking potential so we could make the same dress and it would look different. With my shape, I usually need some waist-cinching action (otherwise I tend to look like a cube!) so I elected to do the full placket version with the elasticated waist hack that is available on the Sew Liberated website. I also did the V neck hack as I find that neckline more flattering on me.
The hack calls for ½” elastic but I prefer a thicker band and like magic, Hayley included the right elastic in the box! How does she do it?
If you decide to follow this hack, be prepared to spend an hour or so making the necessary adjustments to the pattern pieces. It guides you through how to change the position of a bust dart, alter the neckline, draft an elastic channel and re-draft a bias facing. A good skills builder!
This dress was an absolute joy to sew. I have never sewn with double gauze before and now it is all I want to wear. Ridiculously soft, definitely secret pyjamas vibe! As I was sewing it, I kept dreaming about how good this is going to wear. The texture also looked like a waffle which made me smile and, ya know, think of waffles (I then subsequently ate some waffles).
With doing the hacks, there are few extra steps that you need to adhere to (which are detailed in the blog post) e.g. inserting the elastic. You need do this before sewing the sides and skirt on, so you can’t really test the fit. The hack advises the elastic to be the length of the bodice less 3”, but upon insertion it didn’t really add enough ruche to my satisfaction, so I proceeded to take off another 5” or so and crossed my fingers!
Luckily it turned out great! I did fluff up the neckline facing (which I only realised after I had trimmed the seam allowances!) so it’s not completely right, but thankfully I could make it work.
I made the bias facing using one of the fat quarters from a previous SHJ box, and I really love the contrast. Just gives it that little bit extra that you only get with me-mades.
The dress is so perfectly soft and cosy, I love it so much. I can easily see me wearing this all year round as the fabric and dress pairing is so versatile. For winter I have teamed with thick tights and a big woolly cardigan for extra snug – bring on the mince pies and mulled wine!