Our Lady of Leisure Pina Colada Dress

Every time Christmas comes round I find myself looking for that pattern offering something a little bit different.  After a leisurely search through the pattern pages on The Foldline I came across a range of wonderfully named patterns from Our Lady of Leisure.  Each garment being named after a cocktail.

The flouncy fun sleeves of the Pina Colada dress instantly caught my eye and became my draw back to the pattern.  It was ordered along with an in house print out.

I chose a man made heavy weight polyester fabric with a slub of silver from Sherwoods Fabrics.  The pattern requires some weight in order to keep the feature pockets visible and not lost in the natural folds you would get from a fabric with more drape.  There is no pattern lay, but any sewist will be able to work out the best way to achieve this.  There are elements of the pattern which are tricky but the instructions are clear.  I am a traditionalist and I do tack a lot.  When working on the pockets, I found it best to lay the front garment pieces flat and tacking these in place.  I tacked the whole pocket bag flat.  My time in doing this paid off, as the finished garment had no gaped pockets.   The princess line seams fell into place but again I chose to tack first.

Ive been sewing for over half a century but have never been able to master the roll hemming foot on my machine, but this dress solved that, finally.  It is helpful to use this attachment to hem the sleeves.

I did alter the fastening, going for a tie back rather than a hook and eye.

I love this pattern,  it gave me a great element of challenge and a dress I felt wonderful wearing to my work’s Christmas do.

It is totally recommended.