Nell Dress

Last august I sewed up the Nell dress by Tilly and the Buttons. It’s a button up dress with a gathered skirt. A simple but effective style. I have the style arc Porter pattern which is very similar and I had made the Porter as a top. The skirt on the Porter doesn’t have buttons and I think I preferred that detail on the Nell dress so I decided to make it. 

The Nell was a pretty simple sew and it came together easily. Tilly's patterns are really well written and explained so this is probably why I didn't have any difficulty. I would definitely recommend her patterns to beginners. The only gripe I have is that I wasn't keen on how the bodice was atttached to the skirt at the front. It could have been hidden better but if I make it again I will finish that part a bit more neatly. I'm including a photo of that part so you can see what I mean. I can see why they made that choice as it is easier and doesn't make that much of difference for most people.

I didn’t have any buttons at the time so I left the dress to finish later. So this year arrived and my mum gave me some nice white buttons she found in a vintage sale so I finally got around to finishing off the dress. My machine has a buttonhole foot and I had a few hiccups but got the buttonholes sewn on. I also figured out how to use my machine to sew on the buttons. I was delighted that it worked so well. I always do a messy job at sewing buttons on by hand. Being able to do buttons and buttonholes is a skill well worth leaning.

The fabric is a cotton sateen that I got in february last year in Threads Of Green Kilkenny. It was nice to work with and feels nice to wear too.

The dress is nice and I like the style a lot. It is however a bit big. Years ago when I first started sewing I made a Tilly and the buttons bettine dress. From my measurements I made her largest size at the time but unfortunately the dress was just too small for me to actually wear. Her sizing has changed to be more inclusive which is great. But I was still kind of wary so I didn’t size down and just made the size recommended for my measurements on the pattern. If I make this again I would definitely make a size down as there’s loads of ease. However it’s not so big as to be unwearable or anything. I do think I would make this dress again as it does have a lovely style and there are some fun sleeve options like a puffball and flutter sleeve. It could be made in different fabrics and I think they would give different looks. The plain blouse option looks really nice. I'm thinking I might wear this dress to Bloom this year, Bloom is the big annual gardening festival held in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.