The 48 Hour Dress: Easy Kimono

I made a dress in 48 hours! This is the Easy Kimono Dress by PatternRunway.

I have made this pattern before and made it a very easy dress very difficult for myself. This time I followed all the instructions and it went together very quickly and easily – funny how that happens! I made this dress out of a faille that I bought from Spotlight. I’m not often in Spotlight but I really wanted to get some flannel to make some Tofinos (yet to happen). I came across this fabric and thought it had a good drape : body ratio. It was $20/meter and I only needed one. Hello $20 dress!

I made this dress in a small and made only one adjustment. I added 2 centimeters onto the edge of the skirt piece. Last time I made this dress it sat a bit tight across my hips and I prefer a lose fitting skirt look with this pattern. In order to do this I used a long stitch around the top of the skirt piece and gathered it in a touch so that it would match the width of the top. I then sewed and overlocked them like normal and put the elastic in.

I thought about using a bias binding on the sleeves and neck instead of the facing pieces provided as I find facings to be quite fussy. In the end I went with the facings partly because I like the flared look of the sleeves and partly because I didn’t have any navy bias and it was raining so I didn’t want to go out – how slack is that?

I really like this pattern! It is so quick to put together and I would suggest it as a great pattern for beginner/ future sewing enthusiasts to learn on. There’s no fussy zippers and you don’t have to worry too much about fitting either due to the lose design. PatternRunway have just released three new PDF patterns on Etsy. I particularly like the Coffee Date Dress! So there is probably more PatternRunway sewing on the horizon…

Wondering what that green thing is? It’s a Pounamu necklace. Pounamu is a precious stone in NZ, similar to Jade. Have you sewn any PatternRunway dresses? Can you make me a recommendation?