Simplicity 2444 maxi dress featuring John Kaldor

Don't you just love summer? I love summer, a lot. When summer comes around, everyone seems genuinely happy. People smile at you on the road, you get to eat ice cream without worrying about getting a cold, the sun is still out at 9pm, and more specifically, I get to wear maxi dresses without heavy coats for protection.

Last week I had a situation regarding an overlocker I bought, which left me really upset, so on Friday I found myself at Goldhawk road, where I spent more money than I wanted to, and got even more upset. In the evening I decided to sew something, to take my mind off unhappy thoughts. I have been craving maxi dresses lately, especially as Summer is just round the corner, and decided to use the bodice of Simplicity 2444.

This pattern does not need any introduction I think, as there have been so many versions on so many blogs. I made this dress about 2 years ago when I just had Noah, and even though I wanted to make more versions, I never got round to it. 

I used a John Kaldor fabric I bought from Abakhan in Manchester when I spent a week there in February. I bought it on sale for about £2.50 or £3. I bought 3 metres, and I always knew I wanted to make a maxi dress from it. I have been slowly collecting John Kaldor fabric, and I really love the quality of their fabrics. 

Since I had sewn this pattern before, there were not any nasty surprises in store for me. It was a pretty easy make. Stress free, which was exactly what I wanted. I did not make any changes to the pattern, but for the skirt, I just used two rectangles, each 40" long, with the width the full width of the fabric. Not very original I know, but I did not want to complicate my sewing.

The weather was really nice today, and we had my younger brother and a few friends round ours and I just had to wear my new dress. 

I can assure you I was not drunk in this picture. My friend, who is an expert at mixing cocktails, made some using Plymouth Gin, which I had never had, but which I now like....a lot.

Hopefully my overlocker situation resolves itself this week and I can sew more stuff. I used French seams on this dress, but that takes a lot of time and having the overlocker will speed things up for me. I have a major event to attend on Saturday 31st, and I wanted to use my overlocker to sew my dress. I now have to find a backup pattern, to use if my overlocker does not get fixed in time.

On the house front, we have seen a house we REALLY like, so fingers crossed they accept  our offer.

What summer sewing have you been/plan on doing?I know maxis are the way forward for me this summer ( as always).