I have been spying some gorgeous clothing in Tescos lately, and I couldn’t resist this bohemian style hanky-hem dress with a ditsy floral and paisley print. It’s even (on the whole) in that Pantone colour of the year, living coral…
I actually nearly returned this dress, and in telling you why, I’m afraid I’m going to have to go on a #plus-sizeproblems rant: Most cheap clothing shops do not size-up their patterns properly. Primark is terrible for this; Peacocks not great, and although Tesco used to be fine, lately I’m finding their F&F label also do not fit me well. I can only assume they found someone in Ethiopia or somewhere who is undercutting their previous pattern making company. It’s so frustrating, but they seem to think adding a couple of centimetres all the way round will mean it fits a size eighteen woman properly, without taking into consideration a curvy woman’s shape at all!
How make a dress fit plus-size ladies better.
Within a couple of weeks I picked up six items from Tescos and returned four of them due to fitting badly. And the size 18 trousers I also bought are a bit too big around the waist; but the dresses were too tight around the waist and hips, and too baggy at the bust. Anyway, this dress was too beautiful to return, so I kept it, in size 22, hoping that I would work out a way to wear it, even if it was only with a jumper over the top! So, curvy ladies, here’s my tip: Take the fabric belt out of the provided loops; tie it up again as tight as you can, and then pull up the fabric over the top of the belt so that the top half hangs over it a bit. That way some of the extra fabric around my legs ends up over my tummy and hips and leaves me feeling a lot happier with the way the dress fits me.
The dress only buttons up at the top half, and I’m happy that they are matching fabric covered buttons, not cheap plastic ones – they do make the dress look better quality. I also love the shape of the short sleeves – is it called angel sleeves? or fluted sleeves? Anyway, for my big arms they are perfect!
What to wear with a summer dress in the evening.
If you need to throw on a jumper or jacket in the evening to keep you a bit warmer, then you have plenty of colour options to choose from. You could pick out the coral, pink, orange, red, turquoise or mustard yellow from the ditsy floral and paisley pattern. A denim jacket would look cool. The pattern, the hanky hem and overall style of the dress gives it a vintage feel – another reason why I liked it so much! And paisley is my trend prediction for summer going into autumn!
When I was looking for jewellery to wear with this dress, I couldn’t believe how perfect this necklace was! The turquoise beads along with the colours of the shells go perfectly. The bohemian style is also a good match.
Which shoes to wear with a vintage style dress?
You might spy that I actually have two shoe options in these photos (three if you count bare feet)! To begin with, I wore my new black ankle boots that look a bit like Dr Martins, and that was due to the walk to get to the photo location. I actually think the boots look great with the dress, particularly when I’ve pulled it up at the waist to make it a little shorter. When left to hang loose, I think the dress is a bit too long to go with ankle boots. Anyway, although I love boots with vintage style dresses, I also thought my chunky slip-on sandals look great. The tan colour of the leather goes perfectly, and just like with boots, the chunky-ness of them gives the whole outfit a bit more of a quirky edge that nice polite sandals wouldn’t! I bought mine from a little shop called Lola Blue in Padstow, Cornwall, and the brand is Oak & Hyde.
We took these photos over the bank holiday weekend during our campervan trip to Devon (Youtube video coming soon to my channel!). Chris had done the research and found photos online of this beautiful quarry at a place called Foggintor on Dartmoor. It was about a mile walk from the carpark with heavy rucksacks on our back, but well worth it! We took a packed lunch with us to eat there, and just round the corner we also photographed an H&M dress (probably my next outfit post) and a dress I made for Threads of a Fairytale. Did you go anywhere different over the long weekend?
Shop the look:
And this is the Amazon link to the same sandals: (I’m sorry, I don’t know why all my Amazon links aren’t displaying pictures any more.)
