Not enough fabric for my pattern - what now??

Last year a new, and rather lovely, fabric shop opened up in Myaree, Perth. It is called Woven Stories Textiles and stocks a stunning array of ethically sourced hand woven, hand dyed and hand printed fabrics for sewing and quilting. Being a bit short of money of late I was very restrained and chose just 1 metre of one fabric - this indigo dyed, hand printed cotton.

As we were in the middle of summer, I was hoping to make a simple dress to wear on the hottest days. I needed a pattern that didn't use much fabric and decided on the Eucalypt Dress by Megan Nielsen. I can't remember the width of the indigo fabric, but it was just not quite wide enough to fit the pattern pieces on. Hmmm....

I hunted through my scrap drawers and my stash for a fabric that I could use as a contrasting panel and all I could find was a tiny amount of cotton that I had dyed with indigo a couple of years ago. The cotton had a pattern cut into the fabric and was a good match in colour and rustic-ness (!) for my main fabric. However, there was too little contrasting fabric to use as a panel, so I cut it into uneven rectangles and made a panel with offcuts of my main fabric. I hand stitched around each piece with embroidery thread as an extra little detail.

I had just enough to make contrasting bias binding for the neck and armholes and for a strip around the hem of the dress.

I decided to lengthen the dress slightly more than the original pattern and have a straight hemline.

So there we are - the print doesn't match down the centre due to fabric restrictions, the contrasting fabric is fraying where it was pre-cut and the dress is very rustic and imperfect - but I love it. I adore indigo-dyed fabric and this is so floaty and comfortable to wear. I'm so pleased I was able to think of a way to squeeze this lovely, simple pattern on to my special fabric.