Butterbeer is RANK! ... But my Robe Sureau is not!

Really sickly sweet and not very nice!

So I got to go to the Harry Potter studio tour for my birthday - it was great fun and as it was a special day, I wore my Sureau for the first time. I love it! It's so comfy to wear and looks really good.

I'm holding Lord Voldemort's wand in that photo above! The dress certainly wasn't without its trials; I decided I wanted pockets and so set about using the instructions from another pattern I have (Simplicity 2215). Except that I've never used an invisible zip before. Or put in pockets. The right pocket was fine and has turned out lovely:

But the left pocket, which sits in front of the side zip, was a complete and utter nightmare to do. I don't know how many times I had to rip out the seams and start again, about five I think! It seemed to go ok when I made the toile but I suppose I wasn't being particularly neat then. When I eventually got the hang of it (well, sort of) I realised that the raw edges of the pocket were showing at the side, doh!

So, more seam ripping. I eventually got it so that I was reasonably happy with the look of the finished pocket. The different coloured pockets are on purpose, before you say anything. The invisible zip isn't entirely invisible by the way!

Bit of a blurry photo!

I love the dress and the pattern was so easy to follow despite being in French. Thanks to Eleonore and Anna, I got lots of tips from the sew-along and managed to make a lovely dress that I'm sure I'll wear time and time again. I may change a couple of things for next time though - perhaps putting the zip in the back rather than the front if I make pockets again and also I might make the skirt part not as full. Oh, and I found these really cute button to go on the bodice - apologies for the blurry photo again.

Here are a few highlights from the studio:

And I couldn't resist taking this next photo of Delores Umbridge's pink dresses, after all this is now a sewing blog...Future projects maybe??!