do guincho: LONDON SEW SOCIAL . HEY JUNE RACER BACK DRESSES AND A GIVEAWAY

My favorite thing about having a blog is actually the good friends I make with it. The way we push and help and inspire each other is amazing! So there was no way I could have missed the second Sew Social Meeting. It is such a pleasure to share some time with a group of super talented and fun ladies!

This year we meet in late April in the city of London. We had the best weather we could hope for – sun shining every single day! - so we could have fun sightseeing and fabric shopping together. As you can imagine, London has some quite amazing fabric shops…

And, as last year, we also got a REALLY nice goodie bag (and, don’t worry, there is something for you to…) from our amazing sponsors! It was great to come back home and dream about all the things we were going to make with our new patterns, fabrics and notions.

Actually, I was lucky enough to travel back to Lisbon on the same flight as Andreia and Ines and we spend the all two hours checking out our Tuttle Japanese Books and having fun imagining what we would do, what fabric we would pick for each project or what changes we would make to some designs. It was really, really fun!

So, as I arrived, I started sewing and today I have a couple of summer dresses to share with you… Here they are!

PATTERN: Racer Back Dress by Hey June. Though Hey June is one of our sponsors (I’ve just finished sewing a Biscayne Blouse I got from the sponsorship and I can’t wait to show you), this pattern is actually one of her free patterns! And it is a great pattern too! I’ve already sewn 5 dresses for Teresa and Ines with it and I think they will became their “2016 summer uniform”. It is fast and simple to sew and it is super comfy to wear. What more can we ask for? For these dresses I skipped the topstitching around the neckline and armholes and left them with no hem. I must tell you I am quite happy with this “simplified” version. I made size 6 for Ines and size 8 for Teresa (they are 7 and 8,5 years now) and there is plenty of room to grow. Actually, size 6 still fits nice to Teresa so, though the pattern’s biggest size is 8, I think it will fit nicely a 10 year old skinny girl.

FABRIC: Butterfly printed knit cotton from The Sweet Mercerie and solid (almost neon) yellow from my local shop (Park dos Tecidos) for the back detail. The Sweet Mercerie was one of our sponsors too and they have sent us some pretty amazing fabrics! Each of us got a lovely bird printed crepe (inspired by Trine, I intend to turn mine into a Gallery blouse for myself) and could choose one of three different printed knit cottons: anchors, dots or butterflies. It was a hard pick but I am glad I got the butterflies as I am truly in love with theses dresses! The fabric quality is super nice and it has the perfect drape and weight for this pattern. After spotting these tops my friend Ines made with the dotted fabric, I decided to make back yoke in contrasting fabric and this little detail made the dresses look even more special. I might need to cut my children’s hair short for it to shine properly…

So are you now ready for a great giveaway? We have divided all the goodies from our wonderful sponsors into 4 packs and, for a change to win one, try your luck on the Rafflecopter below.

There will be 4 very lucky winners!
Here's what the goodie packs include: