Offset Warehouse

For the past couple of weeks we have been selecting our favourite bloggers to collaborate with us for our Christmas Showcase. They’ve been whipping up Christmas themed projects using our fabrics, and we have had some fabulous ideas and projects sewn up. Check out our blog every Friday for the latest showcase!

Today: Fleece Lined Skater Dressby Kathryn at Yes I Like That

Earlier this year I discovered the wonder that is fleece-lined tights. They were a wardrobe essential from January to mid-May in London. Now the cold weather has come back, and I’ve made something that’s even better than fleecy tights. It’s a fleece lined dress, of course!


This dress is made from the beautiful cotton fleece fabric kindly sent to me by Offset Warehouse, which I wrote about in this post. While waiting for inspiration to strike, I became very fond of sitting on the sofa and draping this fabric over myself while watching TV, so I wanted to recreate that experience in dress form and keep it very simple.

I converted my regular McCalls dress pattern to have front and back waist darts, then added a gathered rectangle for the skirt. The waist also has elastic overlocked to the seam allowance.
I’m not sure if gathered fleece is the most flattering look, but this dress is so awesome I don’t care. It’s the most comfortable thing I have ever worn. It’s the acceptable-in-public version of a slanket.

The neckline and sleeves are finished with lycra stretch binding. I used it exactly like regular bias binding, except I pulled it a little bit as I sewed.
This dress was heavily inspired by (ripped off from) this little People Tree number. I changed the number of tiny useless pockets from the original, as I felt one was probably enough.


Sorry for the messy background in these photos. They were taken far too early this morning and it was too cold to go to our usual photo studio (aka the hallway of the block of flats I live in. Glamour!)

I can’t believe I managed to get all this stuff in the background and didn’t even think to pose in front of the Christmas tree. You’ll just have to imagine it providing some festive atmosphere.

The back doesn’t usually look uneven, I’m just standing weirdly.

You can get your own fleece backed jersey fabric here from Offset Warehouse, and I highly recommend it.

This is probably the last finished object I’ll get up on the blog this year, so although I might be back with some other witterings, I wish you a very merry Christmas/non-specific holiday!