Alright, let me tell you about this dress colour block thing I worked on recently. It wasn’t some grand plan, really. I just had these leftover pieces of fabric kicking around my craft room for ages. You know how it is, bits and pieces too good to throw out, but not quite enough for anything major on their own.
So, I had this chunk of solid blue cotton, a bright yellow linen piece, and some plain white fabric. I kept seeing those trendy colour block dresses online and in shops, looking all sharp and modern. But honestly, the prices were a bit much for something I wasn’t sure I’d wear often. Then it hit me – why not stitch these scraps together and make my own version?
Getting Started – The ‘Plan’
First thing I did was basically dump the fabric onto my floor. I messed around with arranging them. Blue on top, yellow bottom? Yellow top, blue bottom? Maybe angled pieces? That last one looked way too fiddly for me, frankly. I just wanted something simple.
I settled on a straightforward design:
- Blue for the top part, like the bodice.
- Yellow for the bottom part, the skirt bit.
- White as a band in the middle, kinda like a belt, to separate the colours cleanly.
Didn’t have a proper pattern. I just grabbed a simple shift dress I already owned that fit okay and used that as a rough guide for the shape of the top part.
Cutting and Stitching
I laid my guide dress onto the blue fabric and carefully cut out the front and back pieces for the top. Added a bit extra around the edges, you know, for seam allowance, or more like ‘just in case’ allowance! For the yellow skirt, I just cut a big rectangle, figuring I could gather it or pleat it later. The white band was just a long strip.
Then came the sewing machine part. I stitched the shoulder seams of the blue top pieces together first. Then the side seams. That formed the basic top shape. Next, I took the yellow rectangle, sewed the short ends together to make a tube for the skirt.
Connecting the yellow skirt tube to the blue top was the slightly trickier bit. I decided to gather the top edge of the yellow tube a little, just running a long stitch and pulling the thread gently to bunch it up. Pinned it carefully to the bottom edge of the blue top, making sure the gathers looked somewhat even. Stitched that seam. It wasn’t perfect, a bit wonky in places, but hey, homemade charm, right?
After attaching the skirt, I took the white strip of fabric. Folded it in half lengthwise and pressed it. Then I carefully pinned it right over the seam where the blue top met the yellow skirt, covering up my slightly uneven stitching. Sewed that white band securely in place on both the top and bottom edges.
The Final Look
Lastly, I finished the raw edges. Hemmed the bottom of the yellow skirt and the armholes (I decided to go sleeveless). Just simple fold-over hems.
And that was pretty much it. I tried it on. It fit! A little loose maybe, but comfortable. The blue and yellow looked quite striking together, and the white band did a good job breaking it up. It definitely has that ‘handmade’ vibe, not super polished, but unique. I actually made something wearable out of those annoying scraps that were cluttering up my space. Felt pretty good about that.
