Day to night drape dress.

Isn't it great to discover sewing patterns that are very multi-use.  Such a pattern for me is the Day-to-night drape top by Maria Denmark.  It is such a quick and easy make and has been a very good style for me.  It is basically a cowl neck top which I first made as a long sleeve top in a light weight cream jersey.

The sleeve pattern piece from the Birgitte pattern fits the day-to-night top perfectly, which is great.

My recent addition has been to use the day-to-night top as a dress, simply by lengthening the pattern pieces.  The pattern calls for fold-over elastic which I got from Kleins.  They have 10 colours and it is so useful and easy to work with. I used the beige for the top which almost had a gold sheen to it and the fuchsia for the dress which is a great deep pink.

Here's a closer look at the elastic stitched at the armhole.  As you can see, I just used a zig-zag stitch on my machine, which worked fine.  The elastic is stitched around the armholes and around the back neckline.

So for the dress version I used this stretch jersey from +Minerva crafts which is a lovely mix of navy, black, jade green and pink.  It is perhaps a little bit light weight, but luckily the weather is exceptionally mild at the minute, so I can get away with it.

So I just thought I would show you how versatile this dress is.  Here it is with a fine long-sleeved top underneath, worn with my flat boots.

Then worn just as it is, feeling christmasy, all ready for christmas parties with higher heels.

So there it is, overall a very versatile pattern, one that I will definitely be returning to again and again, like a lot of Maria Denmark patterns.  Think I would use a slightly heavier jersey or even a knit fabric the next time.

The Woodland Stroll Cape.... for Loch Erne

I have had a weekend away booked for ages, but of course left the wardrobe planning to the last minute. It was to be a hotel break for myself and 6 female friends, the main aims to obviously have a lot of laughs, relax in the hot tub, eat and generally be merry. We all dressed up on the Friday evening  - for this I made the +Maria Denmark Day to night top into a dress. I love this pattern as it is quick and easy to make and has a lovely flattering cowl-type neckline.  Incredibly I have no decent photos of it so I will put it on the blog later.

I was tired of my winter 'dressy' coats, so I thought I would make a cape.  The Liesl & Co Woodland Stroll Cape seemed perfect and turned out to be perfect for my weekend.  I used a black cashmere coating fabric which I had purchased last January from Dragonflyfabrics in their sale.  I had thought of making a dress with it, but then thought it was too thick, so it seemed right for this project.

The lining is a multi-coloured polyester blend spotty fabric, which is lovely and bright and I do like it, but in retrospect I wish I had used a flannel fabric for extra warmth, as the coating is surprisingly light.

So, the pattern itself? Well it really couldn't be better.  I cut it out last Saturday and it was sitting ready on Monday afternoon waiting for the closures to arrive in the post.

So, the pattern consists of 1 back piece, 2 front pieces and a simple facing and the same for the lining.  I didn't use any interfacing mainly because I didn't have any and I was in a rush.  Tut, tut. But I thought my fabric was sturdy enough without it.

Probably the only potentially tricky bit might be keeping your lining nice and smooth when you are attaching to main fabric.  It is worth taking your time over this as there is nothing worse than a hanging down lining.   Other than that it is a simple make and I am delighted with the result.

  As I haven't done that many buttonholes yet, I decided to get these closures from Minerva Crafts.  They have a great range of metal, wooden and plastic closures and toggles, which I think work quite well on this cape.  Where the buttons were meant to be on the underarm I used the Prym sport and camping  stud fasteners which work fine too.

Another good think about this cape is that it only uses 1.5 yards of the main fabric so even if you use a wool fabric, it's not going to break the bank.  Black probably wouldn't have been my first choice, it would look great in tweed, tartan or a lovely bright coloured boiled wool. You could even use a water repellent cotton. It looks great with trousers, jeans, dresses and a straight pencil skirt and, of course, very 'in' right now.  Can you tell I like it?  I think there will definitely be more!  Perfect for the weekend away.

Sorry, the photos don't really do it justice between dark days and dark fabric and I look like I've seen a ghost in some of them.

I'll leave you with a wee photo of the marina at the +Manor House Hotel and view from my room.  The colours of the trees were lovely.