Ravel or Debussy dress - a Pippi Pinafore

Another blue thing! I'm clearly loving blue at the moment.

Ravel or Debussy dress (Jennifer Lauren Handmade Pippi pinafore pattern)

You know how sometimes an idea for a project lodges itself in your mind and just will not leave? This was one of those.

I've loved the idea of Pippi pinafore shape since I saw Roisin's beautiful versions. I do love the idea of pinafores in general but was worried that a Cleo-esque shape would be too sack like for my taste, and I would miss the definition of a proper waist and bust darts. Anyway I started lurking the pippipinafore hashtag on Instagram and saw some absolute blinders on there. Then I remembered this royal blue cotton drill I've had in my stash for a few years. It seemed too perfect an idea to put aside so I broke my spending rules and bought the pattern. No regrets!

I had a bit of a problem with the PDF pattern. This one is designed so that the printing goes right to the edge on two sides, but my printer somehow chopped a little bit off these edges. While it is nice to not have to lop the border off two sides of each page before taping together, I think I'd rather have the border on all four sides to avoid this type of problem. Anyway I don't know what but something went awry and a bit was missed off one side of each page. I didn't want to print it all again, so I just guessed / measured between sizes or notches to know how far away to tape each piece from its neighbour. I crossed my fingers and hoped I wouldn't encounter any problems because of my guesswork, but happily it was all fine.

I really, really enjoyed sewing this. I took my time over it and honestly enjoyed every minute (apart from when my machine jammed sewing one of the strap button holes. I wasn't very zen at that moment). I don't often have call to practise my topstitching but loved doing so on this dress.

Fit wise it feels great, but since looking at these pictures I feel I need to do a bit of work on the bib and straps. The bib gapes a bit at the centre front, and I think the issue is that my shoulders/traps pull the straps towards centre when I'm moving around, which distorts the bib a bit. It may also just be a bit big so I'll start by sizing down in the bib next time. I may also need to shorten the straps, and perhaps move their placement on the back further apart?

The fit of the skirt is fab and I love love love the pockets and pleats, and how the button band, facings and waistband fit together. I gave it a really little 1/2inch hem, as I didn't want to lose too much length, but actually I think I could've gone a bit shorter.

I was so happy when I found that I had enough of this elephant / woolly mammoth cotton lawn left over from this Sorbetto top to line this beauty with. I love a happy lining, and the light weight lawn is a perfect partner for the heavier cotton drill.

The buttons are another joy. What is it about buttons? They bring me a lot of happiness. These are from an old RTW pair of shorts that I loved to death, and of course then harvested the awesome nautical metal buttons. There they sat in my button tin until the Pippi pinafore came along to give them life once more.

So I am loving this dress, it's easy to wear and will pair with so many of my existing tops. The only slightly annoying thing is that it appears this fabric creases easily (in these photos I had only been wearing the dress for about an hour and hadn't even sat down in it). Plus it's another cat-hair attracting fabric, so I will always be creased and furry! Hey, there are worse things to be!!!

Also I finally got my hair cut! It's been over a year! It had got to the point where I was willing to hack it off myself, so I'm glad I managed to make it to the hairdressers at last. I'm still not used to it but I think I like it!