The Liberty Lantana dress

A lot of thought went into choosing the style of dress to make with this fabric. It wasn't exactly cheap and was so, so lovely that I really felt quite compelled to make something extra special with it. But then, I really wanted to make something that I could wear quite easily through winter.

So I pondered, then decided just because a dress was made with fancy fabric, didn't mean it needed to be fancy. Dresses in shops cost well over the fabric cost of this dress.

I thought about some of the dresses that I've made, love and worn the most and I pulled out an old favourite pattern, Simplicity 2586, which is a Cynthia Rowley pattern. I made a few minor modifications and came up with this.

I really love it! It fits lovely and feels lovely to wear.

I'm planning on wearing it with tights and boots or flat shoes.

Excuse the bad photos, it's incredibly gloomy in Sydney today.

I love that this cute bronze coloured, leather belt goes so well with it. I also have a black one that I picked up for a steal in Newtown just a little while ago.

Now the pattern is quite straightforward and I've made it a few times before. The modifications I made were:

• Taking about an inch from the centre front fold of the dress, this reduces the billowy look a little.
• Tapering the back slightly for a nicer fit and no gaping at the neckline.
• I really like the sleeves of my Tova pattern and when I compared them up to the sleeve for view C, they were pretty much the same, except the Simplicity ones were shorter. So I lengthened them to just 1 inch less than the Tova ones, and used the Tova sleeve binding dimensions to finish them.
• Naturally, I also lengthened the tunic pattern as I do need to wear this while carrying children and the like.

So there you have it, a simple tunic which is perfect for me and made with the most divine Liberty Lantana fabric. I'm already dreaming about my next purchase of this stuff!