Dressmaker of the Year – Winner for the ‘Ready to Wear’ Category.

I’m still pinching myself.

A few months ago, I decided to enter The Dressmaker of the Year competition. Not because I thought I had any chance of coming anywhere, but because I noticed that if you entered you would receive a free sewing pattern.

I wasn’t sure which garment to enter, but in the end chose my Joni Dress by The Fold Line. My reasons for choosing this dress was that it had attracted several comments when I had worn it, so thought it might be a good one to choose, I also had no time to make up something new. Decision made. I put in an online entry, attached a photo of the dress, and chose the free pattern that I wanted to receive.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when, in March, I heard that I had been shortlisted as a finalist. No way!

The next thing to do was to send off my dress to London so that it could be examined by the panel of judges. It was at this point that I wished I had maybe made a garment specifically for this competition, rather that choosing something that I had made not knowing that it would be looked at in detail by a panel of sewing experts! Oh dear – too late now! I’m usually pretty careful with how my garment looks inside as well as out so kept my fingers crossed that it would be up to their standard too!

After a nail biting wait, I was (and still am) over the moon to hear that I had won first place in the ‘Ready to Wear’ category. Little old me, who would ever have thought!

This was such a wonderful surprise for me, especially as the competition had more than 1,200 entries from all over the world!

My prize was a sweet sewing basket from Korbond which will come in useful for all the little bits and bobs in my sewing space that currently don’t have a home.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading some lovely articles in Make it Today Dressmaker magazine and Sew magazine too. All very exciting! Thank you to these publications for organising such a fun competition! Thank you also to Brother, Create and Craft and Korbond for their generous prizes.

The well deserved overall winner for her ‘Customising’ enry is Portia Lawrie. Her quilted upcycled denim jacket is superb and inspirational. I think you would love Portia’s website linked above, particularly at the moment as she is organising a huge huge raffle to support those affected by the Grenfell disaster, head on over to find out how you can join in!

The other three talented and creative sewists that are winners in their category are

• Angela Green in the ‘vintage’ category
• Georgia Marshall-Brown in the ‘children’s wear’ category
• Harriet Johnson in the ‘reader’s choice’ category with her amazing Party Rings two-piece! Love this one!

Thank you so much for all the sweet comments that so many of you have sent via social media when the winners were announced. I am so grateful for your support, and it means so much to me.

What I have learned from this whole experience, and what I am sharing with you today, is that we should just ‘go for it’ – you never know what might happen!

Take care, and I’ll be back soon,

Kathy x