The Lyle dress is one of the new May patterns for Seamwork and it’s one of the fastest dresses I’ve made in a long time. It fits perfectly into my loungewear capsule wardrobe – funnily, enough, I actually pinned a RTW dress that looked quite similar to this right before I saw this new Seamwork pattern, so was really pleased when I saw what the new patterns were!

I made a note in my last post, but the reason I got to make the pattern early is that I recently joined the Seamwork ambassador team, which I am very excited about! I’ve been a subscriber from Day 1 and when I saw they were looking for people to get involved, I threw my name in the hat. It basically gives me a chance to have some input into the behind-the-scenes workings over at Seamwork HQ, giving feedback on patterns, magazine articles, making up new patterns, etc.  In return, I’m subscribed to the service for free for a year, along with a fine bunch of other sewists. You can read more about the ambassador team here if you’re interested.

The Lyle line drawing is pretty unassuming and that’s what makes this such a fast sew. It only has two pattern pieces, plus the neckband and armbands and I managed to get it out of 1.5yds of knit fabric fairly comfortably! It has a boat neck and a curved hem, which has the effect of a side split, making it very comfortable to move around in. I made the 16 and that fit me very well. My only slight issue is that the boatneck is slightly wide, which is normal for me, so I would either start at 14 or narrow the neckline next time (probably the latter in this case).

I had a specific fabric in mind for the project right away and this fabric is slightly unusual. It’s a French terry that has the design printed on the wrong side – that is, the looped side. It’s not so obvious from a distance, but up close you can see the little blue flowers nestled in the textured loops, which remind me of forget-me-nots. I spotted this fabric at one of our local stores, Drygoods Design, and knew I had to have some – I just love the texture it provides. The colour scheme is also perfect for a sportsy loungewear feel. The only slight downside is that I have to be careful not to catch the loops on rings or whatnot. It feels a bit like a fabric your granny would warn you against for that reason and you’d end up grudgingly admitting they were right… hopefully not in this case though.

The construction was fast, fast, fast since there are so few pieces. The shoulders are stabilised (I used some knit interfacing) and then you sew the little bateau neck. Not always my best neckline with melon boobs, but in the context of loungewear I really don’t care! The beauty of stay-at-home clothes. Then it’s really just a matter of sewing up the side seams and serging (or sewing) on some knitbands as you would with a t-shirt.

I hummed and hawed over which bands to use. I definitely wanted a contrast because I felt I might look a bit like a big old tombstone in all this grey (especially with the little flowers to add to the graveside effect – eek), but I couldn’t decided between a bright blue or a grey-green colour. Normally I would be drawn to the blue, but it wasn’t quite the right shade. I actually found that taking a couple of photos really helped. The grey-green looked much better in the photos, so that’s what I went with.

Oh dear – look at my isolation hair! Argh!

I’m not ashamed to tell you that I wore this for the three days after I made it, which proves that it fulfils exactly the role I was hoping for – perfect loungewear, that I would be happy to go shopping in. Not that that is the limit of this dress. Check out Meg’s lovely floral version for something a bit more colourful and all the different versions under #seamworklyle on Instagram.

Also – I just today saw these hacks that Seamwork have provided for the pattern and they are great! I had considered changing the neckline, but they’ve done it for me now, plus I really like the look of the low-backed version with the bra-covering strap. I have just the fabric for that! Now off to take a snap of today’s outfit for Me-Made May. I’ve got my $10 tripod set up to make it minimal effort. Are you taking part this year? It’s my favourite challenge of the year!