Handmade Lilou Cat Dress

I made a dress for myself :) This is the first dress I've ever made for me. And while I would hate for a bonefide seamstress to look it over, from a distance it looks pretty fantastic and I love it. This dress is the Lilou dress from Tilly Walnes' book, Love at First Stitch: Demystifying Dressmaking

I chose a gathered waist instead of the original pleated waist for this Lilou dress because I thought it would better suit this fabric. I also added a trim to the bottom. This dress looks so much nicer with the trim. It took me probably a solid 2 hours to put in my first invisible zipper, and it's not perfect, but perfection will come in time, I'm sure.

As usual, I didn't follow the 'rules' of the book and I'm sure I would have been better off had I started with the easier patterns in the book and progressed to this more difficult one. I just couldn't help myself and I jumped right into the back of the book. I made a few mistakes that I probably could have avoided- like not doing a mock up, so I had to take the straps apart to shorten them after the dress was all done. It was a bit of a hack job to put them back together again, but oh well, it's all a process of learning. All in all, I learned a ton.

I'll be back soon with more project inspiration. I'm almost finished making a bag that I'm excited to show you and I've started cutting up the fur for the batch of hairy beasts I will be releasing later this year.

I'd love to see what you're working on too. Share your projects here in the comments if you like, or connect with me on Instagram (@AndreaTeetoo).

Happy sewing!

♥ Andrea ♥