Spring 2020 : Jalie's Florence

The last of this spring Jalie patterns I previewed this year was this one, the Florence top and dress.

I used a linen blend from Fabricville and a nice bright colour. It seemed to me that this was a spring when the brighter and more cheerful the better.

Construction was simple a straightforward. As is typical with so many Jalie's there were a few nice details. The first I noticed was the outsized chest pockets, that I felt balanced the overall boxy look of the garment, and an interesting curved back yoke with a pleat for ease.

This is very much a put on and go dress and I suspect I will be wearing it a lot.

Here is my version without a belt. Obviously this is the most comfortable way to wear this dress. BTW I made this purse. It's cork, which is super easy to sew, and used the free Miss Maggie pattern from Emmaline Bags.

I also like this dress with a belt. Dug one out that I thought I had thrown out. Periodically I follow the advice to purge my closet and I always regret it. I was happy to see that this belt had survived, hidden away somewhere. I think it suits this dress.

I liked this pattern a lot, and was particularly happy with this season's new releases from Jalie. Now too that I have seen what other sewists are making, I am pretty sure I will go back and try some more, and certainly will be making some of the patterns in other sizes for the domestic clientele.

The Genevieve pull-on skirt pattern is one. Two of my granddaughters want one for themselves, and my daughter, their mother, talked me into shortening the one I made for myself and giving it to her. She's good about doing that. Her reasoning is that this would be perfect summer skirt to wear to work under her lab coat and who could argue with that/

She sent me this picture tonight, I have since cut out another two for her, and I have to say it looks cute shorter than the longer version I wore.

I have a lot on my sewing table right now so expect to see more from me. The truth about my partial absence from this blog for a while has been sewing related. After Christmas this year, when the reality of retiring was starting to sink in, I decided to write down all my best sewing tips. Once I started on that little project I realized that a lifetime of sewing, more or less continuously, had given me more to say than I thought. This has been a little project that has become a very big project. Working on that most days has left me with less time to make blog contributions and I felt I needed to explain that.

The good news is that I am getting close to the end of this particular little enterprise and I will have more to say, and more to post regularly soon. Your patience is appreciated.

Talk soon.