There's life beyond the Box Dress in Stylish Dress Book 2!

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Friends, meet pattern G from Stylish Dress Book 2 - Simple Smocks, Dresses and Tops.
It's described as 'Midi-Length Jumper Dress' (in the American meaning of 'jumper'), but I think of it as The Apron Dress. For obvious reasons.
 

Yep, it's this book again, from which we are always banging on about the Box Dress (pictured on the cover, and featured on our blog here, here and here).
And here is pattern G:

It could hardly be simpler (much like the Box Dress), yet has that particular Japanese style: very simple lines in precisely the right places. That little back pocket? Perfect! (I'm not sure if it has a grubby mark on it in the picture below or if that's the result of tweaking the lighting, but please excuse for the sake of actually getting this blogged!)

 This is made up in our Stretch Denim - the 'black' colourway, which is still quite blue, but not as blue as the indigo. It's a great mid-weight denim and the little bit of give adds extra comfort factor to an already superbly comfy dress. Mine is a bit shorter than the pattern intends, but a bit longer than I might usually wear: a good compromise. I eked this out of 1.2m (size M) but I would recommend 1.5m to avoid pattern-tetris-panic, and double your desired finished length for a directional print or 110cm wide fabric. Nevertheless, how satisfying is it when this is the entirety of your scraps? :

 We think the Apron Dress would also look great in many of our linens, for example the mid/heavy weight natural, or any of the plain coloured washed linens. Or it could be fun in a Japanese linen/cotton blend print.

The pattern instructions indicated double lines of top-stitching in many places. With a style this plain, it's just the right decorative touch. I only stitched double lines on the pocket top and the hem, but used a coloured cotton throughout.
It's just plain Gutermann cotton thread; I'm not sure I've really mastered the art of using proper topstitching thread (tension issues) and I was happy for this to be just a subtle touch. The stretch of the denim combined with the topstitching has made some of the edges a little wavy straight off the machine, but after a wash it should all settle into place. I omitted the interfacing recommended for the front and back facings, because of the weight of my fabric, but in hindsight perhaps the top front could have used some stabilising in the seam.

You might have noticed that I'm wearing the Apron Dress with another Alabama Chanin top. I've worked on the fit and am really loving this one, so should blog about it soon!

(By the way, my necklace, which I love, was from The Spotted Quoll who I found at Bowerbird.)

- Jane & Fiona xx

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