Needlecord Merchant and Mills Florence

Jun 27

Jun 27 Needlecord Merchant and Mills Florence

Hot on the heels of the tencel Davenport, another orangey dress! This is the Merchant and Mills Florence, I was inspired to make a needle cord version by Corrie (@corriesfancygoods on instagram) who made a lovely bright red version.

I'd originally intended to make a long sleeve version like her, as a transitional/autumney type dress, but then I left it too late and it was June and a heatwave so autumn did really seem so appropriate any more. I was also a bit worried it would be a bit frumpy being both long sleeve and full length. I considered shortening it to knee length instead but then was overcome by indecision and ended having to resort to asking in my IG stories what combo of skirt and sleeve length I should go for. The standard short sleeve/long skirt length was the runaway winner and since that involved no altering the pattern I went for that. I'm very happy with it! It's less autumnal than I thought it would be, the needlecord is not that heavy so it feels appropriate for summertime floatiness (but I'll be able to winterify with a long sleeve top underneath).

I made a size 16, as per my bust measurements and it is quite roomy. I might have got away with a 14 actually, although then I maybe would have had to widen the sleeves slightly as that's always a potential issue for me. I'd happily make another 16. I didn't make any adjustments on this one at all and I don't think it needs any!

One thing I wanted to mention is that this has very good instructions for gathering the skirt (which is absolutely humongous). I usually hate gathering but this method of securing it all round with pins before pulling the gathering stitches at all, and then pulling the string to make it completely bungee up and then working backwards from the centre, spreading it out to the required length works well and I will always do it like this now!