The Newspaper Picnic dress - a Tilly & the Buttons Joni

The Newspaper Picnic dress (Tilly & the Buttons Joni pattern)

For my birthday I was rather excited to receive Tilly and the Buttons' "Stretch" book from my lovely best friend who knows me well. I’ve been admiring the patterns in this book for a while and immediately knew I would make the Joni dress first. 

The fabric here is from Fabricland, which I used some birthday money to buy. I have to say, I’m not entirely convinced about my fabric choice. It looks a bit.... worky? Serious? Basically if I worked in an office it’d be just the thing. But I don’t, and so I’m trying to convince myself it looks ok with sandals and a messy bun here. 

Let’s be honest, it’s comfy and it’ll get worn a lot, especially on cool spring days, in autumn and in winter with navy tights and brown boots. So maybe it’s just not a natural choice for a summer dress. 

The fabric is lovely, it’s a really nice weight with lots of stretch and good recovery. As usual I have some left so I will be making the little one something from the scraps, plus maybe my first foray into knicker making! I’ve downloaded the Megan Neilsen Acacia pattern and am looking forward to having a go. 

Back to this dress, and just to add my thoughts on the pattern. I graded between bust and waist, and ended up sewing the side seams at 1 inch instead of 5/8 once it became apparent that it was too big (should have sized down!), but apart from that no adjustments. I should have raised the shoulder seams (a common adjustment for me so not sure why I didn’t think to do it), as all the extra fabric there makes it look a bit like I’ve got shoulder pads in. Maybe that adds to the workwear feel of it?! After wearing it for a day I actually feel it’s too big all over, so if I do make the pattern again I will go 1 or even 2 sizes down. 

The twist front is actually not complicated at all to sew, but I have to say I’m not 100% happy with how it sits. I was always fiddling with it to try and get the twist to look nice, and stop the ends of the neckline binding showing. One of them is poking out in the photo above. It's bugging me even just looking at it in pictrue form! I’m contemplating putting a few hand stitches in to keep the twist in place. It’s quite low cut which is fine but again it makes me wish I’d cut the size smaller so the neckline sat closer to my chest. 

I’m not overly sure I like the lines of this dress on me, but it’s comfy and swishy and actually did a really good job of keeping me cool on a super hot Easter Sunday. We went for a lovely walk in the woods (perfect for taking blog photos!) and had a picnic. We forgot our picnic blanket and the grass under the trees was all dewy, so we had to sit on bits of the newspaper. It was wonderful and just such a happy family day. This dress will certainly always remind me of it and how content we all felt as a family.

So all in all I’m feeling lukewarm about this make. It was a very quick, satisfying sew though, and I think it will grow on me! While I’m not immediately keen to make millions of Joni’s, I do think a black one would be useful, and maybe also a really fun print - palm leaves comes to mind - with shorter sleeves for summer. 

Next up on the sewing list is a Pippi Pinafore which is making good progress, about 20 refashions which are in various states of progress, aforementioned knickers; then jersey dresses, a pinafore and a sun hat for the little one. Plus I have just started formulating plans to make my first pair of jeans. Springtime certainly ignites the urge to sew in me! I just need more hours than are in the day to get through it all!