It’s true. The Tilly and the Buttons Cleo dungaree dress is addictive. It is impossible to make just one – or it was for me anyway!
The first one I made was in some yellow corduroy I had leftover from my Pixie Pea Coat (I seriously overbought the fabric – I bought 3m and only used 1.5m!). I sized down one size at the waist as my hips are much wider than my waist measurements but looking at the gap at my waist I could have gone down two sizes. I really took my time to make this, I added extra topstitching down the side seams just because it looks nice and chose to go for the hip pockets for this version.
The second one I made is this tweedy one. The tweed was a bargain from the Birmingham Rag Market on a stall selling overstock fabrics, these are considered ‘sustainable’ as they are essentially recycling a waste product leftover from manufacturing. If you want to know more about overstock fabric, Indie Sew have just published this blog post which explains it really well. Again, I took my time and added extra topstitching and I have hardly taken this one off since I completed it. I went for the top pocket for this one and while it is less practical (where the hell am I supposed to store my phone?!) I am really happy as the pocket is a great place to display my growing collection of sewing-related pins and brooches.
The main adjustment I made to my versions is that I fully lined them – this isn’t in the pattern instructions but I really felt like they would ride up when worn with leggings if I didn’t. I lined the yellow one with some cotton I bought from IKEA that has been sitting unloved in my stash for ages and whilst this isn’t the world’s most sustainable make, I’m glad I am using up my scraps and my stash. The lining I used for the tweed version I picked up at the fabric swap the Fold Line held at the Great British Sewing Bee Live in September. I absolutely LOVE fabric swaps – someone’s scrap is another person’s treasure and you never know what you might find! I didn’t realise until I got home that this beautiful bird fabric wasn’t a continuous piece but had been cut into lots of pieces – enough for a top AND a dress. I was thrilled to find that two of the dress pieces were big enough for me to cut the lining for this Cleo – hooray!
Right then, that’s me done rambling, here is a picture of me walking away before I bore you any longer! Have you made any Cleos? Or are you fed up of seeing them everywhere? Let me know in the comments below!
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