If there’s anything that gets me in the mood to sew pretty dresses, it’s the prospect of Spring. And when you’re in the mood for a pretty dress, who else to look to for inspiration but By Hand London?

I love the look of square necklines, although I’m not sure that I’ve ever actually worn one before. And in an age when going into stores and trying things on is no longer really possible (here in the Netherlands at least), what better way to try out a square neckline than to make one myself!!

When you add to the fact the reality that I have an undying love of princess line bodices, I was pretty optimistic that this dress would be a winner!

Thankfully, it did not disappoint.

My Tamzin Dress

My By Hand London Tamzin Dress is the size 12/16. My body measurements had me between that size (at bust) and the next size up (at waist), but I could see that there was plenty of ease in the design, so I went for the smaller of the two sizes that my different body parts would allegedly fit into.

I sewed from the B-cup version of the pattern. The By Hand London Tamzin Dress comes in an inclusive size range. The pattern is available in two size variations: a B-cup design which caters for UK sizes 6-24 and a D-cup version which caters for sizes 16-34.

This is view B which has wider ties which start from the seam of the princess line at the front. View A has a narrower tie at the back only. I am really happy with the look of view B, especially as the very generous amount of ease means I prefer to wear it rather cinched at the waist.

My Tamzin Dress is made out of this lightweight linen chambray from The Fabric Store. When it arrived, I realised that it is the same fabric I used to make the Zadie Jumpsuit about two years ago. What can I say except that I have now at least developed a fairly consistent taste in fabric!!

Sewing the By Hand London Tamzin Dress

The thing which surprised me most about sewing the Tamzin Dress was that it was really easy!

Looking at it, I had thought it was much more complicated than it actually is!!

Rather idiotically, looking at the dress from the “outside”, I wasn’t entirely sure how the “tiered” look on the skirt and sleeves was achieved. Was it separate pattern pieces?

Well, it’s just pin tucks!! And only three of them!! So it’s actually really simple to achieve.

I had a bit of a face palm moment when I realised how simple it all was. After all, I’d survived the pin tucks of the Page Dress by Elbe Textiles, this would be a piece of cake in comparison!! The technique used in the instruction of pre-pressing all your fold lines and then assembling the skirt, also made it all a breeze.

I am also somewhat enamoured by the idea of external facings, after sewing the Tamzin Dress. As someone who has always despised facings, the notion that I could actually make it exciting by turning it into a feature and putting it on the outside has also kind of blown my mind!!

Although, word of warning, my sewing muscle memory meant that I accidentally sewed the neckline facing on as an internal facing first time around and I had to go back in to unpick! (Yes, even I will unpick things when truly necessary!!)

Having never sewn a square neck, I was also a little worried that it would be complex, but it was really straightforward and I experienced no issues whatsoever.

I found the instructions impeccable and really just loved this project throughout. It was one of those ones where things just worked!

But since being entirely satisfied makes for a rather boring blog post, I will complain about one thing – just for you guys!

My only bug-bear with the By Hand London Tamzin dress is why oh why doesn’t it include pockets!!!

Obviously, I added in-seam pockets because it would have been frankly anti-feminist not to! But I really prefer it when pattern designers don’t make us remember little extra steps like that ourselves.

After all, if I can accidentially stitch a facing the wrong way, I can definitely forget to add my pockets, especially when I’m engrossed in a particularly good set of instructions!

Now, excuse me as I go try to find some sunlight in which I can swirl around and try to avoid developing square shaped tan lines!

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If you want to see more of my sewing adventures, you can find me on Instagram here.