The Thora Top and Dress Pattern

Lets start the story here with the brand new g&g Sewing Pattern! 

When I was designing the Thora, I wanted to create something that felt easy to wear on warm summer days, whilst still having enough interesting details to make it enjoyable to sew. 

The top features a neat collar stand with a soft V-shaped placket and a cleverly constructed pleat at the base, which gives a lovely amount of ease through the front. The subtle cap sleeve is finished with a beautiful neat bias-bound edge.

For the dress version, the same gentle A-line shape extends into an easy knee-length dress. Double-ended darts at the back add shape without making it feel too fitted, and there's an optional waist tie so you can wear it loose or define the waist a little more depending on the look you're after. And of course, it has pockets too!

One of my favourite things about Thora is how different it can look depending on the fabric you choose. It works beautifully in soft woven fabrics and was designed alongside the fabrics in this release, making it the perfect pattern to showcase the new prints and embroidered designs.

To support you as you sew, I've also created a Thora Top Tips video packed with extra guidance and helpful techniques. I'll talk you through key stages of the construction process, share plenty of tips along the way and demonstrate how to adapt the pattern into a sleeveless version for even more summer sewing possibilities.

Returning to Greece – The Story Behind My New Fabric Designs

When I designed the original Goddess Collection last year, I spent so much time looking at the colours, architecture and mythological stories of Greece.. From tiny island harbours and climbing bougainvillea flowers to the symbols of the Greek goddesses, there was inspiration everywhere I looked, and deciding which ideas would make it into the final designs wasn't easy!

Once the fabrics were out in the world and I started seeing all of your lovely makes, I found myself looking back at the original designs in a completely different way. Little details kept catching my eye, like the vibrant pink flowers and the tiny boats hidden in the Bougainvillea Island design and the symbols scattered throughout the Goddess Power design. 

I realised there were still plenty more ideas to explore. Rather than moving on to a completely different theme, I wanted to stay in Greece for a little longer and revisit some of those favourite details, giving them the chance to become designs in their own right.

Introducing Embroidery to the g&g collection

I love the texture of embroidered fabrics and having focused more on printed designs in the past for the g&g fabrics, I was really excited to develop an embroidered fabric design for the first time. 

It definitely took a bit of development to get it just right, but it was worth it. After trials on various different base clothes and experimenting with different stitch densities I settled on a lovely, natural textured viscose linen base. It’s soft, drapey, breathable and a real pleasure to sew.

Bougainvillea Blooms Embroidered Viscose Linen

The vibrant pinks of the flowers in the Bougainvillea Island design are so gorgeous that I felt they really needed to stand out on their own. Working with one of our freelance designers, I experimented with scale, density and orientation of the flowers. The result is a lovely scattered, non-directional design featuring two shades of pink and accented with green leaves. 

The embroidery has just the right amount of density to look really neat, while still being soft and easy to work with and to sew.

Thora's Charms Embroidered Viscose Linen Fabric 

The symbols in the original Goddess Power design have always been some of my favourite parts of the collection. I just love it when a fabric can tell a deeper story, and in this print all the symbols link back to an inspiring Greek Goddess. 

I loved the idea of giving those little motifs another chance to shine in a more pared back design. 

This time they've become delicate embroidered details, stitched across the fabric in soft blue and golden tones. They're a much more subtle take on the original print, but still tell the same story.

Aegean Waves Viscose Linen Fabric 

The tiny boats from Bougainvillea Island always felt like they had a story of their own to tell, so rather than stitching them, I wanted to let them become a print in their own right.

They're only a small part of the original design, but every time I looked at it my eye was drawn straight to them. They instantly make me think of little boats gently bobbing on the water in the sunshine.

It felt only right to give them a design of their own.

Aegean Waves places those boats amongst painterly blue brushstrokes inspired by the colours and movement of the Aegean Sea. It's a softer, more relaxed design that captures that lovely feeling of looking out across the water on a warm summer's day.

Printed on our popular viscose linen base, it has a lovely combination of drape and structure with the natural texture of linen. It presses and sews beautifully and feels so light and airy to wear on a hot summers day.

The Greek Collection Continues

One of the things I enjoy most about designing fabrics is creating collections that you can keep coming back to.

With these three new designs joining the original Goddess Collection, there are now six exclusive Greek-inspired fabrics that all work beautifully together. From the bold symbolism of Goddess Power and the colourful florals of Pink Ariadne and Bougainvillea Island, to the embroidered details of Bougainvillea Blooms and Thora's Charms, and the relaxed coastal feel of Aegean Waves, each design has its own story whilst still feeling part of the same family.

They've all been designed to mix beautifully with one another, as well as with the coordinating plains, making it easy to sew a handmade wardrobe where everything works together.

I absolutely love seeing how you style my fabrics and the combinations you come up with, so I can't wait to see what you make with this growing Greek collection.