Hinterland Dress Pattern Review

On my daily perusal of the good ol' instagram feed I see a lot of patterns. But, every now and then there's one that seems to be a favourite amongst all the accounts, and it feels like something is screaming at me to make one too. So, that's how I came across the Hinterland Dress Pattern by Sew Liberated.

I should clarify...it wasn't just instagram. The final push came when I was visiting my favourite local fabric store, Harmony Provo. I had fallen in love with some Robert Kaufman cottons that felt amazing (they look like linen, they feel like linen, but without the usual linen pricetag). As I was getting the fabric cut, the Hinterland Dress Pattern was on the cutting table (insert angel choir sound) and I knew it was a sign from the sewing Gods that I needed to take these gorgeous fabrics and make them into breathtaking, colour-blocked Hinterland dresses (yes, two).

The first make was my pink and green Hinterland. I knew I wanted to colour-block, but I didn't want to go too crazy. I have a habit of trusting my gut, and then questioning my gut, and then following my brain and doing something I regret, and then telling myself to trust my gut only. So, on this one I trusted my gut and just went from there.

There's quite a few options to customise this dress pattern, which I now understand why it's an Insta favourite. You can have buttons on the bodice, or extending all the way down to the skirt, you can have a play with sleeve lengths, or no sleeves at all, and you can play with the length of the skirt (oh, and also include waist ties). I opted for the shorter sleeves, buttons on just the bodice and included the waist ties.

I decided to make one side of the bodice the beautiful lime green fabric, as well as the neighbouring sleeve and the waist ties. The rest of the dress I used the bright baby doll pink fabric. Oh and the pockets! HOW COULD I FORGET THE POCKETS! I did the pockets in the green as well for that little, unexpected pop of colour. I also decided to do the bias tape that same colour in the green but obviously you wouldn't see that part. Unless you're like me, and just like to muck things up and the bias ends up being on display. But hey, I liked the look so much, that I did the exact same thing with my second version; with the second version it was the weird baby poo yellow (don't know how else to describe it...soz) in place of the green and the bright happy blue in place of the pink. Oh and duh, I forgot to mention i cut out the size 16 (again, thanks to the massive boobs). If you have Pamela Anderson boobs like yours truly, you do not want that annoying stretch across the boobs that happens with buttons when things are on the tight side. So the size 16 it was!

NOTE: By getting my wires crossed and having the bias on display, I ran into some trouble with the button plackets being too short compared to the bodice so i made note of this and extended it about an inch on the next one.

Sewing up this dress took me about a night and half. So, factoring in that I parent two wild beasts all day, and don't start sewing till about 8pm, it took me about 8 hours total to get this dress done. That includes the button holes and my fabric covered buttons. If you're interested in my fabric covered buttons, you'll be excited to know that a post will be coming soon on all you need to know about it and how to do it!

Safe to say that the two Hinterland dresses I created from the gorgeous fabric from Harmony Provo are on heavy rotation. They have that subtle colour-block that resonates with people that love colour, and doesn't "offend" colour haters, which is a nice balance to strike. The pattern overall is fairly easy (with a basic sewing knowledge) and I highly recommend it for a beginner wanting to challenge themselves. The instructions are so clear and only a sleep deprived mum, such as myself, could muddle things up. But really, the overall pattern and instructions are probably the clearest I've come across in a while, and I honestly just love the end result and hope you do too!