I always make myself a birthday dress each year and it’s usually just for a pub meet up or a BBQ but regardless of location I always want something special to wear. This year, I was being quite indecisive with the fabric choice so I gave my mum a shortlist of fabrics from Liberty and she chose and sent it to me as a surprise. Naturally, I couldn’t wait until my birthday to open it, and of course I needed to sew it so I had an excuse to open it early.
She chose this amazing yellow colourway of Betsy which is one of my all time favourite Liberty prints. To the point where I considered renaming my adopted cat Betty to Betsy – but in the end I thought she might get confused!
I used the amazing shirred dress tutorial by By Hand London on their Instagram highlights so I won’t go into detail about the shirring itself but I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the process because there is almost nothing more satisfying to look at than shirring!
For the channels of elastic on the sleeves, this was a great opportunity for me to use up some Liberty scraps and I chose two different prints. I really love clashing Liberty prints, and it’s such a special detail when it’s on the inside.
I had it sewn up ready for a Birthday in the garden with my family whom I hadn’t seen for the whole of lockdown. My mum made an especially impressive cat cake, and the dress was perfect for a hot day as I could just take the sleeves down.
If you haven’t tried the tutorial by By Hand London I would 100% recommend. This dress was made from 2m of fabric, which obviously is not the cheapest in Liberty – but it’s most definitely something I couldn’t afford to buy ready to wear.
Kate Eva 