Heya’all. I’ve made this new dress. Actually, I made it ages ago. 
And took most of these photos ages ago too. Bad lazy blogger!
I wore it recently as my “travelling dress” when we holidayed in Broome, and it was the most AWESOME travelling dress… why? well it’s a loose-fitting, baggy, dress made in a comfy fluffy fleece, so just about the most amazingly comfortable thing EVER! pretty much like wearing a blankie. At the same time, there’s something about the curved, slightly cocoon-y lines of the dress that I think makes it quite smart, chic and pulled-together. This is actually my wearable trial of the pattern and I absolutely love it. I might almost love it more than my “real” version. Almost. I actually love that one a bunch too. To appear here very soon.
Pattern: So, yeah; the Inari tee dress by Named patterns. SUCH a popular pattern, and as I now appreciate, for an excellent reason. It’s terrific. Simple, yes; and basic, and bordering on a boiled-down-to-the-bare-bones kind of a pattern with just a few very subtle features like that slight cocoon shape, the side seams drifting gently frontwards, the split hem and an up-down front and back hem. And I love it. I’m normally attracted to a more complex design for a dress, but this one just hits all the right buttons for me right now.
Fabric; a red and white stripe mid-weight fluffy fleece from Spotlight. This is the same fabric I used for Tim’s Christmas hoodie and for Kelly’s hoodie too. Yep, I bought quite a lot! there was a sale… um, yeah *awkward self-justifying of excessive fabric acquisition* Well, at least I’ve used it all now. This has been kicking around in the stash since pre-Christmas, since I’d decided it didn’t really suit anyone else in the family. I think it suits me though!
My stripes are matched up as perfectly as my obsessive little soul could manage. I’m smugly and complacently satisfied with how well they turned out… the only way I know how to achieve this level of stripe matching is to pin each and every junction and go nice and slow. Tedious but failsafe, and all my stripes here match any which way and everywhere. *primly pats self on back*
sewuthinkucan asked me on instagram whether I found the high slim sleeves on the design to cause the dress to ride up when you lift your arms up as above: not that I pull this pose all that often and probably will be careful now I’ve seen these pictures! but it does a little. Not enough to stop me from wearing it! I think the effect is not too bad because of my fabric being a little stretchy. However, in my next, “real” version of the pattern, I altered the sleeve so as to successfully fix the problem… and will post details on that in my next Inari post.
Alterations; the most obvious one is inseam side pockets! Well, of course. It’s baggy enough and the side hems curve forward slightly to the front, an even more comfortable position for your hands than the true sideline of your body; making inseam pockets an almost foregone conclusion.
My neckline has neither facings nor bindings; partly because my fabric has too much fluff and loft for bulky extras with incorporated double seam allowances etc, and also because this is basically my wearable muslin for the pattern and I just didn’t want to fuss around with it. I overlocked the raw edge and simply turned it in once, topstitching in a single line of stitching from the right side. My fabric is all of thick enough, stretchy enough and stable enough for this to be totally fine. I did do the sleeve cuffs though.
Details:
Dress; Inari tee dress by Named Clothing, red striped fleece
Shoes; designed and made by me, details here
taken after a plane trip, a week rolled up in a suitcase, another plane trip, and precisely zero ironing. LOVE.
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