My Night and Day dress, a Gertie pattern

Updated: Aug 8, 2023

Let me start 2020 by sharing a colorful summer project: The Night and Day dress, from Gertie, that I sewed during a very exciting workshop in Paris, hosted by Gertie herself last July.

A woman with brown hair is wearing a fit and flare dress with a square collar and with blue and red flowers that seemed to be painted on the fabric. She is facing and smiling to the camera

Gertie and her patterns: A love story for the ages

If you visit my blog regularly, you know it well: I am always very inspired by Gertie and everything she produces. Her books and patterns have really helped my sewing skills and enabled me to improve, and I adore wearing clothes made from her patterns. The first time she liked one of my instagram posts, I *may* have taken a screenshot, showered it with handdrawn hearts, and shared it with everybody around me... So of course, when she came to Paris for a two days workshop, I couldn't let that opportunity go!

The pattern for this workshop was the « Night and Day » dress, a versatile pattern that includes a variety of options for sleeves, skirts, top, collars. With this pattern alone, you can make 70 different dresses!

A woman with brown hair is wearing a fit and flare dress with blue and red flowers that seemed to be painted on the fabric. She is turning her back to the camera and looking over her shoulder, smiling.

The workshop

At the beginning of July, I had the immense pleasure and honour of spending two days at Brin de cousette, in paris, in the gorgeous store owned by Emmanuelle. Funnily enough, it's there that I attended my very first sewing workshop, six years ago, with my mum!

The workshop lasted two days: Day one's goal was to manage the perfect fit (how to measure yourself, which adjustments were needed, etc), while day two's goal was to actually sew your dress.

I admit that the first day was what I was looking forward to the most! Every time I sew a dress for someone else, I realise how different our bodies are, and how lucky I am to be able to adapt my clothes to my body and my measurements (and not the other way around!). From this point of view, I learned a lot! Like a very diligent student, I took lots of notes and hope to be able to apply what I learnt again and again.

The second day didn't disappoint at all! Gertie showed us some fantastic techniques to save time, get neater finishes, and… I finally understood how to sew a pretty lapped zipper - Hooray!