Living the high life

A few months ago I found Tea's blog and was bowled over by her makes. Inspiration is an overused word but seeing her outfits gave me a much-needed jolt of energy. I love the aesthetic of this lady's style and it reminded me what I truly like about clothes and dressing.

There was something about Tea's makes that made me really happy and positive about all the amazing things we can make using our sewing machines and our brains!

I commented on this dress that Tea made to say how much I liked it and that I wanted to make a similar one. She replied saying that she hoped I'd be able to find a similar pattern but that, even better, I should draft one - so I took up her challenge and did just that!


I spent a few weeks honing the fit of my basic bodice block (that's for another blog post) and then I had a close look at the pictures on Tea's blog to work out the construction of the dress as best I could.

The front bodice has underam and waist darts and on the back bodice the dart was removed and made into a mini-princess seam making two bodice pieces.



The skirt is a full circle skirt. Instead of putting buttons all the way down I just put in two buttons and then a small 15cm zip. My skirt is also longer than Tea's and doesn't have any pockets or buttons on the front.

The fabric is African wax cotton and was bought in Gold Fingers and it says HIGH LIFE all over it. Did I mention it says HIGH LIFE all over it?



My outfit pictures were taken by my Mum over Easter when I went with my family to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It was a wonderful holiday and I'm so lucky to have had the chance to go. We visited some family there who I hadn't seen in years and we explored the beautiful scenery. If you get the chance to go I highly recommend it!

If it had been warmer I'd have taken some pictures in a stunning location like some of the pictures below - instead we snapped these quickly before running back into the house to put more layers on - oh, Scotland!


Garry Sands, Isle of Lewis


Road from Bostagh to Calanais, Isle of Lewis


Dalbeg, Isle of Lewis

I'm really happy with how this dress turned out and I'm going to make another one in a different fabric now. Possibly shorter. I might shorten this one too.

Thanks, Tea, for inspiring me! And I hope you don't mind me imitating you! Hope I've not just crossed a blogging boundary!