When a great fabric shop creates their own line of one of your favourite types of fabric you know that you have to try it! I picked a bright floral print for my first postpartum dress.

I’m a big fan of viscose challis and I see this fabric as a perfect material for all seasons. Depending on the print, it can be used for bright summery dresses and comfy winter garments. Since for my latest make I used viscose challis with a black background, for my fist dress since our baby was born I decided to pick a bright floral fabric with white background.

The fabric I used is Minerva Exclusive Femme Fatale viscose challis. It’s a lovely challis full of drape and with a silky touch. The quality of this medium weight fabric is really high. It’s not unusual for viscoses challis to have some imperfections which you have to avoid while cutting your pieces, but it wasn't the case at all with “Femme Fatale”.

As for the pattern, I wanted to sew something quick and easy, with not much fitting. I picked Burda Style dress #120 04/19 because it ticked all the boxes- easy to sew, but with lovely feminine details like the neckline stand and ruffles. It required only a couple of changes - I sized the bodice down to 34, lengthened the skirt and interfaced the button plackets. 

As always with thin fabrics, I finished most of the seams with French seams. This fabric is perfect for such a neat way of sewing!