My Favourite Makes of Summer 2021

Summer is probably my favourite season to sew for.  I feel most inspired when planning for floaty summer dresses and pretty woven tops.  This year, the weather was particularly uninspiring but I still managed to make up a few things to see me through the season.  Here’s a quick run down of my top three makes from summer 2021.

My frill collar blouse hack….

I’m never quite sure what to title this make but I guess the title I’ve given it is a pretty good description.  Early at the beginning of summer, I made a list of three things I’d like to make to add to my summer wardrobe this year based on looks I’d seen on the High Street. 

I have a YouTube video talking all about my inspiration for these plans and you can watch that here if you’d like to.

In my list was a blouse with a frilled collar (everywhere at the moment aren’t they) and, rather than buying myself a new pattern, I wanted to see if I could put something together using some of the patterns I already had in my stash.

I used the bodice of my The Blouse pattern by The Avid Seamstress for the main body of the blouse, took the sleeves from my Davenport Dress by Friday Pattern Co. (shortened slightly) and based the collar on my pattern piece for the Peter Pan collar of the Sudley Dress pattern by Megan Nielson. 

I am absolutely thrilled with how this turned out and it was such fun to hack all of those patterns together into a completely new creation.  It’s always good to think outside the box with the patterns you already have I think and experiment with how they can be adapted or re-worked to suit style changes.

 I do have plans to make a winter version which I’m hoping to film for my YouTube channel, stay tuned for that one and if you’d like to find out more about the making of this one, you can watch my video here.

Fabric from Minerva.

My Jarrah Sweatshirts in Atelier Brunette sweatshirting…

Perhaps not your traditional summer make but this year very apt as we had one very chilly August!  This summer I rediscovered my love for the Jarrah Sweater by Megan Nielson.  Everything on the High Street at the moment seems to be oversized and boxy and that style is exactly what you get with version A of this pattern. 

I bought only a metre of each of these beautiful Atelier Brunette sweatshirt fabrics (plus ribbing for my navy version) and managed to get them easily out of that.  I love this fabric for the warmer chilly months because it’s not too heavy but is still super cosy on the inside.  Perfect for summer evenings or colder summer and early autumn days.

I have plans for many a Jarrah Sweatshirt for winter too as it’s such a quick and satisfying sew.

My Myosotis/Lyra Dress hack…

This summer I feel like I’ve been adding the tiered skirt of the Tilly and the Buttons Lyra Dress pattern onto everything.  I just love how the skirt makes up and, now I’ve made some adaptations to the original pattern, I think I now have the perfect midi skirt.  If you’d like to read more about how I adapted the pattern, you can read my blog post linked here.

I bought this beautiful fabric in a little haul from Stoff and Stil in the summer time and this lovely blue floral viscose wasn’t going to be anything other than a midi length Myosotis Dress by Deer and Doe in my head.  So, with a lovely afternoon tea booking with my friend as my deadline, I set about making up the Myosotis bodice (with no changes to the pattern, I make the smallest size) and adding the skirts of the Lyra Dress pattern to make a midi length dress of dreams – in my humble opinion anyway!

I love everything about this dress and just feel so comfortable in it.  I think I’m coming to realise that shirt dresses are my favourite,  I don’t like anything too high around my neck so the open but not too low neckline of the Myosotis is perfect for me.

I was super speedy with this one and managed to get it finished just a couple of hours before my afternoon tea date.  I can be speedy sometimes it seems…

So those are my three favourite makes of summer 2021.  I’d love to know what your favourite summer makes were in the comments below.

I’m now super excited to start thinking of autumn sewing plans because, although summer might be my favourite season to sew for, autumn is my favourite time of year.  Chilly mornings, sunny days, colourful leaves and conkers – what’s not to love!

Until next time, happy sewing!

Sally xx

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