Merry Christmas and I hope everyone still has that holiday feeling. It’s summer here and it’s scorching hot. No snow, just a whole lot of heat and humidity. We have the Sydney to Hobart yacht race on Boxing Day and the traditional Boxing Day test match in Melbourne to keep us celebrating the season in our very hot summer. 

I’m on holidays too so I’ve made a cool summer holiday dress and my summer work jacket. Christmas Day was too cool to wear this dress for my Christmas hostess duties with the family this year.

Cool summer holiday dress

New Look 6122 has 3 neckline options and can be made either maxi or short length.

I chose View B with a knee length skirt.

The dress combines a stripe knit and a solid colour knit from Minerva Crafts UK. I chose the stripe knit. Vicki picked the solid colour knit for me. Thanks Vicki! Both knits have minimal stretch so they are excellent fabrics to work with.

Unlike my test version, this version uses size 8 for a better bodice fit.

The version you’re looking at is the initial halter neck style that I changed a week later.

You can see the shoulder straps are now sewn onto the back bodice, and I’ve left off the waist ties.

I found the instructions made the whole bodice construction very easy to achieve.

I don’t usually wear gathers on a skirt but this is a summer holiday dress and in the heat and humidity, comfort is key to me. Thankfully the gathers are in the centre of the skirt pieces and not on the hips.

After finishing this dress I pattern tested an activewear top for Melissa of Fehr Trading.

The bra lining of her top is brilliant for training at the gym and I crudely added the bra lining to this dress after I finished making it. I tell you what, this bra lining gives me heaps of support now.

DH took this shot while we were visiting Bathurst on the weekend before Christmas. There’s a lot of bodice support in this dress. Just what I wanted. I wore this dress all day and loved it.

These are the farmers markets at Bathurst. You can read about the test version here. 

This is an easy dress to make as is. Views B and D are my favourites but I’m sure I’ll be able to use all of these styles. And if you need more bodice support, add a bra lining. It’s worth the extra effort.

Summer work jacketMaking this summer jacket using Vogue 8931 was a lot of fun. This jacket style gives you a few options and the ability to colour block to make it ‘your own’. That’s got to be a good thing.