I want to make a dress because this old duvet cover isn't good enough fabric for face masks (I'll probably use it for a decorative third external layer though).

Stage one: borrow middle child's dressmaker's dummy, try to make it closer to a size 16/18

Drape. Actually this looks almost good enough to wear as it is.

Thanks to @MathiesonJo for telling me about friction ink for marking fabric, I ground to a halt here but I can take it up again tomorrow.

Oh dear. I want to line the bodice.

The good news is, the padded dummy is a reasonable size approximation for me

Going to make a work space. That's the corner of an A1 drawing board resting against the banister spindles. Balustrades. Barricades. Bonbons.

Ta daaaa!

I pinned enough to cut the excess off the duvet cover. Shaping will now be much easier.

I'm working on this in ten-minute bursts and then lying down. I've just realised the pleat-y bits by the hips mean I can have pockets. And I think I want a cardboard template for ironing the pleats into place for sewing.

All of one side will open, somehow, so I don't have to pull it over my head. I'm not sure how to do it though. Something inside the pleat I expect.

OH a wrap dress. Ish. A partial wrap. That's what I need.

I've put down a towel on the drawing board and I'm ironing pleats. Argh. It's hot and exhausting. Any bets as to whether I'm getting all the pleats the wrong way out?

Exactly half my creases were in the wrong direction but I'd only ironed half the necessary creases so it's not too bad. Here we go again.

It's so hot that I'm having to pause ironing a lot

I think I've finished ironing in all the pleats so I can baste them in next and then pin it all back on the dressmaker's dummy to design the bodice. Then I get the shears out.

I just need them held in place enough to make the waistband. There must be an easy way to do this.

- How's the sewing going Ailbhe?
- Well I have a jaunty earworm, kind of ABBA esque
- Oh?
- It's raining sweat, hallelujah...

After all that I'm a pleat short.

I have learned that if I ever do box pleats again I will want a ruler -- and it would be even better to have a 1m steel ruler like my mum did because I could iron along it.

I think last time I made pleats I used a breadknife. I don't have one up here in my attic.

This stalled because I saw a webpage tutorial about shirring elastic and now I want a smocking-look elasticated bodice.