It has been a while, and I am sorry for the gap. Josh lost his father a month ago, very suddenly, and we were away for two weeks. It has been that kind of year. Thank you for your patience with me.

The good news I want to share is that Naomi invited me to Royal Ascot, and I went. I made the dress myself, which sounds unremarkable except this is genuinely the first proper dress I have ever made for me. I have sewn well over a thousand dresses for other people.

It is much harder to design for yourself, and now I properly understand why you tell me that. I have lost a lot of weight and I did not know my own proportions any more, so I had to use the exercise I set you: photograph yourself and draw the outline, because the person in the mirror is not what everyone else sees.

Demonstration Steps:

• Sketched my own body outline from a photograph. I sketch constantly, but always as an illustration, tall and thin. Seeing my actual shape on paper changed what I thought would work.
• Made a deliberate decision to keep the design simple. My first muslin was something more interesting and it did not suit me at all, so I chose a good pattern, good fabric and careful sewing while I learn my own lines.
• Explained why this matters more than silhouette. On a plain sheath, an armhole princess, a shoulder princess, French darts, bust darts or waist darts each hang completely differently and change how the body reads. The cut does the work, not the outline.
• Settled on a semi fitted, narrow A line with a wide square neckline and flared sleeves, in a cotton brocade in off white and silver, with a fine silk lining and embroidered lace for the sleeves.
• Padded a dress form up to my measurements, since I have no base block for myself yet. The only real difference left was the shoulder slope.
• Made an important discovery about padded forms: the form is rock solid and a body is soft. Anything that fits her exactly will be slightly loose on you, so do not add extra ease after draping. I had to take my pattern in slightly.
• Draped a simple base with a bust dart and a waist dart, corrected it, then developed the princess seams from it so I could add flare through the front seams rather than only at the side seams.
• Overlocked every cut edge immediately, because this brocade frays the moment it is cut. That single step prevented most of the trouble that would have followed.
• Marked the notches with small red thread basting rather than pencil, since an overlocked edge hides pen marks.
• Spent three days on preparation before sewing a single seam: one muslin, pattern corrections, cutting, overlocking, notching, cutting the lining, threading the machines, and clearing the space. I know that frustration is what makes me abandon a project, so removing it in advance was the whole strategy.
• Worked through three hem attempts. A facing made the skirt stand out too much, a doubled baby hem made it stiff, so overlocking the edge and turning it once was the only version that stayed soft against a fabric with this much body.
• Gave the lining a baby hem, attached the tulle to the lining from where the flare begins, and cut the tulle as a half circle only slightly fuller than the skirt so it makes soft folds rather than gathers or a bump.
• Finished the neckline and armhole areas by hand, which was both faster and less trouble than machining them, and added a small detail at the top of the back zip so its end is hidden when closed.

Questions & Answers:

• Q: Was the tulle fuller than the skirt?
• A: Only a little. It is a half circle, slightly wider than the skirt and lining, which is enough to give soft folds at the hem without gathering it or creating a bump.
• Q: What is the next project?
• A: A long dress in a 100% silk brocade I have been saving. It is much softer than the Ascot fabric and I did not want to cut into it until I understood what pattern suits me. That is exactly why I made the simple dress first.

The finishing is where a dress like this is decided. The pattern took two days and the preparation three, and the sewing went smoothly because of it.

I will be sewing a lot for myself this summer, and I would like to turn some of it into projects we do together.

We are not travelling for a while because of a visa application, so I will be here. It is good to be back.