Tilly And The Buttons Bettine Dress

We've had a spell of such lovely weather recently and I was so glad to be able to start wearing summer clothes again after what feels like the longest Winter ever. This is my favourite time of year and I pretty much live in dresses when I'm not at the day job and the sun is shining. So with that in mind, I was determined to finish my Tilly And The Buttons Bettine dress!

These are the most sensible photos you are likely to get of me I'm afraid- I'm not a natural at having my photo taken and have to resist the urge to fall about laughing..!

I am really slow at dress making- mostly because I start something and then leave it half finished on a shelf- and with this dress I'm ashamed to say that through lack of time I left it on the shelf for what must be two years. I was determined to finish it so I could wear it during this lovely weather and also during our upcoming holiday in France.

It's been that long since I started the dress that I couldn't find the original photos I took of me cutting out the pattern etc- they must be lost on my laptop somewhere. 

Working in a craft shop I've always got my eye on a pretty roll of fabric or five (it is a dangerous place to work, I always say they may as well pay us in fabric and yarn) and I love this pretty floral fabric I picked for making my Bettine.

The Tilly And The Buttons patterns are so comprehensive- as well as the pattern itself you also get an instruction booklet complete with colour photos to guide you through the process of making your garment. There are even in person and online workshops to go with some of Tilly's patterns, so if you were new to dressmaking there is a lot of support. Although I have a degree in fashion and textiles, the majority of my degree was spent making knitted textiles and working on surface embellishment, so dressmaking is an area I would like to work on and the TATB patterns are perfect for this.

I'm so pleased with the dress, it's so comfy and easy to wear and I feel really proud that I made it! I'm now looking into making some Bettine tops, inspired by this Bettine Hacks blog post.

Have you made any Tilly And The Buttons patterns and are there any other lovely patterns that you'd like to recommend?