La Dolce Vita - When Life Gives you Lemons... B6453


There are so many beautiful pictures on Pinterest of those gorgeous summery lemon print dresses by Dolce & Gabbana and every summer I've wondered...hmmm....maybe I could make one of those?

The lovely Dita in D&G

I hunted high and low and finally managed to track down some great lemon print cotton poplin fabric from eBay - and although it shipped from China it arrived really quickly! (Since buying this I note that Pigeon Wishes also now stocks it if you want to get some from the UK :)

After debating for a while whether just to make a skirt which may get more wear I came to the conclusion that...I just wanted a lovely lemon dress. I know full well it may never/hardly ever get worn but it was one of those projects I did because...I wanted to.


The patten used here is Gertie's B6453 for Butterick. The absolute perfect sundress pattern in my opinion. I made a wiggle dress version here and so the fitting had already been done and I could just whip it up without too much hassle!


Alterations to the original pattern include making the skirt a half circle skirt... I really don't like gathers at all and I find a half circle way more practical and flattering. I also raised the waist line 1.5cm but I'm now not sure if that was unnecessary and is now a bit high....small details.

The skirt is also hemmed with a really nice lemon bias binding I found on the market.

OF COURSE IT HAS POCKETS.

I know I went on about it last time aswell but THE best feature of this is that it has sliders. So much more practical for getting real wear out of something. I found these rose gold ones on eBay aswell.


The shaping on the back of this dress is excellent and I do personally love a low back/v-back dress or top as I find them quite elegant looking. But let's be honest its all about the lemons with this one!!


Well...it's now September and the chances of going anywhere that requires a dress like this is slim however I'm glad I made it. I enjoyed the process a la Randomly Happy and found it came together in about a week as I did it in little sections in the afternoon/evenings. Sewing this way has been quite fun as you don't notice how quickly everything comes together when concentrating on one task at a time. I do feel that as this was made with mindfulness and concentration on its individual parts - I have ended up with a well made and joyful dress!


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