August 2025
Welcome to your August 2025 Dream Wardrobe.
UK SIZES 6-30
Is it Summer? Is it Autumn? Who can tell? We are in that fun transitional period where the weather is changing. Still, really, you can be sewing projects for any season. So we wanted to pick a fun and versatile project for you to bridge that seasonal gap. Many of you may already know the brand Damson Madder, one of our favourites here at Fabric Godmother. We have picked a pattern and fabric for you to recreate a Damson Madder style dress.
About the fabric:
We have had this stunning pale blue and yellow tartan plaid check designed for us and woven into a beautiful seersucker base cloth.
As with most fabrics, we recommend you prewash to remove any dressing and allow for pre-shrinking. A cool wash will be fine; just make sure the temperature you use to prewash is the temperature at which you plan to wash the final garment. You don’t want your final garment to shrink.
This fabric would also work well for:
Merchant and Mills - Honey Dress
Jennifer Lauren Handmade - Luna Loungewear Set
About the pattern:
With a whopping 14 variations, this is your ultimate cottagecore pattern – perfect for trips to the farmers market, strolling through meadows, floating around festivals, or comfortably crafting. Fitting is a breeze with the abundant ease and elastic channels that cinch in to fit just as tight or as loose as you fancy. Choose between making a dress or a top, and between 7 different sleeve options – varying from narrow straps that tie in sweet bows to dramatic Bohemian sleeves gathered in at the wrist.
The Instructions can be found below:
Sizes 6-20
Size 16-28
Notions:
- Matching Thread (Included)
- Elastic, 6–10 mm /1/4–1/2 inch wide - see requirements chart in the instructions for quantity.
- A small amount of fusible interfacing for the wide strap version.
The Holland Park Dress would also look great in:
About your gift:
With so many channels of elastic that need threading for this pattern, we thought it would be perfect to use these classic Merchant and Mills Bodkin and threader.
These clever little devices will save you so much time when creating elasticated garments.
#fgdreamwardrobe
Want to share your Dream Wardrobe? Use the hashtag #fgdreamwardrobe and share your unboxing and final makes on social media.
Happy sewing, Josie xxx
Sewing Inspiration
This month, we gave the box to the creative and talented Suzy Sankey to see what she would create with the contents.
With 9 ways to make this pattern already included, we were spoilt for choice with options of what to make. I opted for the short-sleeve long dress, but made a few pattern hacks to make it feel more me.
I’d had this dress and a similar one pinned on my Pinterest for a while, and I thought this pattern was perfect to hack into the deep V neckline. It was a straightforward hack to the shape of the front bodice pattern piece. Still, to ensure it held shape on the body, I decided to fully line the bodice, rather than using the bias channel method. I just cut double the amount of bodice and sleeve pieces, and once attached and understitched, I sewed my rows of stitching through the two layers to create channels. I thought this would create a bit more strength around that deep V point, where there could potentially be more pressure from the elastic around that corner. I then used the spare bias pieces to add the chest straps simply for decoration, inspired by my inspiration pictures.
Of course, I had to add a gathered ruffle hem to add some more drama. I kept the skirt long but wanted even more drama- so I used one of my favourite skirt hacks. I sewed bias tape onto the inside of the skirt, with 3 long rows of stitching. Through this, I threaded a string and used it to gather up the skirt fabric - I had no idea how it would look. Still, I was feeling Vivienne Westwood vibes from the fabric and dress, so I wanted to try and lean into that even more. I love how it came out, and the best part is, I can simply let the skirt down and wear it full length too, so we get a few looks in one. I’ll be sharing more about the process of how I made these hacks and the whole thought process of getting there on my and the Fabric Godmother's Instagram soon.
Make sure you are following Suzy and Fabric Godmother on socials to see more of this fun collaboration.
Suzy: https://www.instagram.com/suzysankeystudio/
https://www.tiktok.com/@suzysankeystudio
Fabric Godmother: https://www.instagram.com/fabricgodmother/
https://www.tiktok.com/@fabricgodmother