Hello everyone! It’s been a while. I can’t believe that we are already in October. I had a great summer, sewing-wise pretty productive too. Everyone who follows me on Instagram will have seen some of the pieces I made: some clothes for my parents, some repeats of patterns I have made a couple of times before or muslins for future projects. But for some reason nothing that lent itself to a full blog post. This dress however does. It’s the Highlands Wrap Dress by Allie Olson / Indiesew and had been on my to-sew list since it came out; I bought it with the Indiesew Spring/Summer collection.

I even printed it out right away but then I got stuck trying to find the right fabric. Originally I had ordered the magenta viscose crepe that I used for my Ogden Cami but then I felt the colour was a bit too much (and now the dress is orange, haha). Over the summer, visiting my parents for a couple of weeks, I picked up some beautiful linen twill in a not-quite-white light pink colour (this was the before). While the colour wasn’t great, it had the most beautiful drape and I realised that it would be perfect for the Highlands dress. I also had the perfect occasion to wear it to, a wedding coming up next week. It was clear that white was a no-go and after some deliberation I decided that I wanted to go with a terracotta colour. However, I couldn’t wait for the dye to arrive so I had to sew it up with a thread in the colour of what I was going for, which was a little bit of a gamble.

Let’s talk about this pattern. I didn’t think I was a wrap-dress person and never felt the urge to sew one up until the Highlands dress was released. And it’s such a good pattern! I love that it is for wovens and there is something very modern about the shape and those little details, the high slits and the elastic at the back. I made a size 6 in the bodice and graded out to a size 10 in the hips. The construction was very straight forward and everything came together really quickly until I reached the mitered corners and was left with a weird not quite right angle. I then realised that I was using the old instructions, that have since been updated. It was totally my own fault because I had read the update back when it was published but completely forgot about it. In the end it doesn’t make a huge difference in the final dress so I didn’t even unpick to correct the error. The dress is closed with a button on each side and ties on top, which makes it feel very secure. Also the amount of wrap is pretty perfect, and I’m not afraid I could accidentally flash people. Overall the fit is great, especially through the shoulders and the skirt. There is some excess fabric around the waist but with this linen fabric I don’t mind it being a little bit loose. Also looking at the product pictures, the ease seems to be intended that way.

Finally, let’s talk about this colour. So, the dress was finished but was still waiting to be dyed. I had ordered some washing machine Dylon dye in terracotta but for some reason it got lost in the post. When I contacted the shop they promised to send another one, but the days before we had to leave for Germany were numbered. So when it didn’t arrive before the weekend I had to resort to plan B, which was a packet of hand wash dye in the same colour. Intended for probably half the amount of fabric I knew the dye wasn’t going to be enough to get the originally planned colour but I was willing to take the risk (I couldn’t go in a white dress after all). It turned out a bright orange with a terracotta undertone. It’s a gorgeous colour but pretty “loud”, at least for my standards. It is growing on me though and it feels very autumnal. So let’s see if I’m brave enough to wear it to the wedding or if I’ll over-dye it in a darker shade. In any case, this was a super fun dress to make and it’s lovely to wear.

It’s getting to cold for pictures in sleeveless dresses though, I guess that’s the sign to move onto cold-weather sewing. I just started a coat and am actually very excited. Happy autumn sewing!