Written by Part of the “While I Was Away” series.
This dress came together during the last week before I started my master’s.
Since it was still fresh off the sewing machine, I thought it would be the perfect outfit for the welcoming ceremony. I already had the whole outfit planned in my head: the orange gingham dress, a pink cardigan, and hopefully a little more confidence than I actually felt.
At the time, bows were everywhere. They were one of the biggest trends of 2024, and although I rarely sew something simply because it’s fashionable, this trend happened to match something I had always liked. I had wanted to use bows as a closure for quite some time, and this dress finally gave me the excuse.
The dress itself was fairly simple: a sleeveless bodice based on my self-drafted pattern and a two-tier gathered midi skirt, a silhouette I seem to come back to again and again. Looking back, this project became another step towards the bodice pattern I still use today. Every version taught me something new, and this one finally started to feel like it truly belonged to me.
As for the colour… I don’t think I could have picked anything happier than bright orange gingham. Combined with my favourite pink cardigan, the whole outfit reminded me of sweets. It was colourful, cheerful, and exactly how I imagined starting this new chapter.
Of course, Denmark’s weather had other plans.
The welcoming ceremony happened to fall on one of the hottest and most humid days at the beginning of September. My carefully planned outfit disappeared the moment I stepped outside; the cardigan stayed at home, and I ended up wearing my birthday dress from the year before instead. It wasn’t the outfit I had imagined, but the day itself turned out to be just as memorable. I remember feeling excited, curious, and completely overwhelmed all at once. Somehow curiosity won, and by the end of the day I had already exchanged contact details with a few equally confused classmates.
Once the weather finally cooled down, the orange gingham dress slowly became part of my university wardrobe.
At the time, getting to SDU meant cycling to Middelfart station, taking the train to Odense, and then the tram to campus before doing it all again on the way home. It added up to almost three hours every day, and although I kept telling myself it was manageable, the combination of the long commute and constant motion sickness slowly became exhausting.
One evening, cycling home from the station, I realised I no longer felt comfortable making that journey. It wasn’t a decision I had expected to make that day, but it was the moment I admitted to myself that the commute was no longer sustainable.
A little while later, I picked up my new orange Clio.
The three-hour commute suddenly became just over an hour, and for the first time since starting university, I arrived home with enough energy to enjoy the rest of my day instead of simply recovering from it.
Looking back, I realise this dress quietly accompanied both versions of my university life.
The one where I kept telling myself I could manage.
And the one where I finally listened to myself.
I still wear it today, although these days it’s usually layered over a simple white T-shirt. Somewhere along the way I realised that sleeveless dresses aren’t really my favourite after all.
And this dress…
Well, it didn’t stay sleeveless forever.
But that’s a story for another day.
Anca GV 