I bought this yellow gingham on a bit of a whim at New Craft House – I went there in person for their new studio open day and got to stoke all the fabrics, I loved this one as soon as I saw it – it feels like a really high quality cotton – and I don’t think it’s something I would have noticed online necessarily. I sat on it for a while but I was always planning a Flora. After seeing lots of By Hand London Eloise dresses though, and making one of my own for Glastonbury, I wanted to try to hack the Eloise frill with the Flora bodice.
To combine the two patterns I used the Nina Lee Kew skirt with the front cut on the fold as I have hacked this skirt with the Flora bodice a few times and knew that it’s a good fit and a quite simple A-line shape. I cut it about 30cm shorter by folding the pattern piece up. I lined the Kew section of the dress but did just one layer of the Eloise frill.
Other features I added were waist ties, which I inserted before I sewed up the side seams of the bodice, and frilly straps. For the frilly straps I cut two straps on the horizontal fold and two more which were the same width but twice as long – I gathered the longer ones 5mm from the edge and sewed them inside the shorter straps, then turned them out.
Overall, I really love the result of this hack and think the frill works really nicely in Gingham so I’m definitely going to make more. It could work with a gathered skirt as well. It’s the perfect holiday dress and I wore it several times when I was in Italy.
Kate Eva 
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