Secret Pyjamas... Only Better!

Oh my goodness.  I am so over the moon ecstatic about my new dress for fall and winter.  It's the newly released Heather Dress from Sew Over It and it's ABSO-BLOOMIN-LUTELY fantastic!!!

I want a whole wardrobe of Heather Dresses.  Seriously.  I could wear this dress every day I think.  After wearing it all day I actually considered the idea of wearing it to bed tonight too.  Then I decided that would be wrong, but this dress is like secret pyjamas.  Only better, because it feels really great and put together.

I was a bit unsure on the style for me, because it's so far from what I normally sew for myself, but really the pockets sold me.  I do love a good pocket on a dress.  Also the fact I had what I thought might well be the perfect fabric in my stash pushed the idea right over the edge and onto my sewing desk.

I had picked up the lightly quilted knit fabric a couple of weeks ago for about $7/metre at Fabricland with the plan to finally make my Paprika Patterns Jasper sweater, but procrastination being what it is, the fabric was still sitting there uncut when Heather came across my radar.  I definitely wanted to try the colour blocking and my fabric having the light grey side and the dark charcoal side seemed like the perfect choice.  The fabric itself doesn't have a lot of stretch because although it's essentially a jersey the quilting of the two layers with a thin batting in between them makes it really stable.  It also makes it really cozy.  And really, really comfy.

I had some troubles with my ridiculously slow internet connection that led to troubles downloading my pattern, but Rosie from Sew Over It - who is super duper awesome, by the way, fixed my woes immediately and got me up and running again.  I just feel it needs to be said, in this day and age when customer service just doesn't seem to be what it once was, that Sew Over It customer service is really, truly top notch.  I'm so impressed with the company as a whole.

Once my computer issues were fixed it took next to no time to get printing and assembling my pdf pattern and cutting it out.  Sewing it was a breeze.  I did use a t-shirt knit for the pocket linings to reduce bulk instead of using my quilted fabric and after one attempt in the quilted fabric for the neckline, I abandoned that for a strip of charcoal ponte that I had left from a project I'd made last winter and am really happy with the results.

My only issue, besides the whole computer one, was not pattern related, but iron related.  I really need to clean my iron I think because I had a moment of sheer dismay when it suddenly got nasty rusty coloured stains on my front of my dress.  I was so upset I put the dress aside for a few days while I decided what to do.  I was considering buying enough of the fabric to do a whole new front panel, but that seemed so silly and time consuming.  Not to mention annoying.  Finally I decided to just not worry about it.  The stain is right along the pocket opening's edge and I figured no one could see it really unless I point it out and if they did happen to see it they're going to have more to concern themselves with then a stain on my dress because quite frankly they'll be at risk of getting punched in the nose for being that close to me.  You really can't see it unless you're that up close and personal with it.

So there you go!  A total win for the wardrobe with this one! I'll definitely be on the hunt for fabric for more Heather dresses in the future!  It's the perfect dress for with boots and tights for the cooler weather and I think with shorter sleeves and lighter fabric it will be pretty awesome for spring and summer too!