Let’s start with my very first Maven French Dart Shift dress.

The scene is December 2023 when I was as burnt out as I’ve been for ages. Getting over my first bought of Covid was my starting point.

The podcasting stopped and as I recovered, I kept thinking ‘things have to change’.

In that time, I decided I needed a plain dress to get me through the Summer. As a life long sewist, sewing is my therapy.

When everything gets way to tough, the sewist gets sewing.

This first version is what I wore on Christmas Day with the family. As you can see, this is so easy to wear.

My fabric of choice is a piece from a local retailer. It was their end of roll piece so this fabric had some flaws that I avoided for this dress.

I could have tried to add more shape to this dress but my decision was ‘keep it simple’.

There are no closures. The fabric was overlocked to finish the seams. Bias strips are used to finish the neckline and sleeve seams.

This is just the pattern I needed to sew to get my motivation back.

Everything else got done in life. Work was achieved. The house was maintained. I was able to go back and train at the gym, slowly of course. The end of year break was a real blessing.

I hope your end of year in 2023 was good too.