Since last summer I have been on a dress kick. I know it's partly due to Carolyn over at Diary of a Sewing Fanatic because she really knows how to work a dress and I can't let her out do me! Also Shelia at Sheliaz-CTK has really been rocking and flaunting her wrap dresses and I am sick jealous of them both. I've known for most of my sewing life that I don't have a body that works with wrap dresses. Imagine wrapping a piece of fabric around an hourglass. I need too much fabric around my hips. In my opinion. Anyway, I digress.
Carolyn wrote a post about sewing blogs and the different ways blogger present their projects. Some go into a lot of detail while others are simply "see what I made." I think I'm somewhere inbetween. Sometimes I'm very detail, other times not so much. Carolyn does wonderful interpretations of designer wear and I love seeing what she does. Frankly I'm probably too lazy to draft my patterns using a TNT. I don't directly follow designers collections. If it's not in the catalogs at JoAnns, I probably don't see it. My main goal in my sewing is fit. I want my clothes to fit well--DD cups are not easy to fit! I am especially proud of myself when I am able to accomplish a fantastic fit out of a Big 4 pattern. With that said...
I love this dress. When I decided on this fabric I was hoping I didn't look like Barney--the dinosaur, not Rubble! I am extremely happy I made a muslin because the sleeves on this dress are so small, they would have been tight on a broomstick!
I started my alterations with my usual wide back adjustment. Sometimes on knits I skip this alteration but after reading the reviews on Patternreview, I decided to be extra cautious.
Usually if I make this adjustment I have to continue it onto the connecting piece. I figured my fabric had enough stretch to be able to accomodate the skirt portion of the pattern.
Without even measuring the pattern I made my usual FBA. That was sort of a mistake because I didn't take into consideration I was using a knit and the FBA was a little to generous.
I'd rather have too much room than not enough.
The next thing to tackle was the sleeve. When I say it was small believe me...it was small.
This picture shows the altered sleeve piece. Because I made the top of the sleeve wider, I figured I had to make an alteration to accomodate it.
Fitted dress has front bodice extending into sleeves, armhole seam on back bodice, straight skirt with front pleats gathered into band to form drape effect, back darts.
Pattern Sizing:
6-20 I sewed the size 20
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
I think it does other than I used a printed fabric.
Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I liked that it looks like a wrap dress. I also like the super deep V that doesn't show any cleavage! The things I didn't like about it were in the construction. As several sewers on Patternreview suggested, I used interfacing instead of the double fold bias tape to reduce of the bulk at the rathered band. Even without the bias tape, that area of the dress is about 1/2" thick!
Also the elastic that is on the front neckline pieces gave me fits. I didn't get a photo of it but on the right side of the bodice I had to reinsert the elastic five times before I was satisfied with the way it looked. Because of my over generous FBA I had to sew the front waist line about 3/4" deeper.
Fabric Used:
A knit from the 1/2 off Clearance at JoAnns
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
See above
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I'd absolutely sew it again and would highly recommend it to others.
Conclusion:
Put this one on your list. Parting shot...
Carolyn wrote a post about sewing blogs and the different ways blogger present their projects. Some go into a lot of detail while others are simply "see what I made." I think I'm somewhere inbetween. Sometimes I'm very detail, other times not so much. Carolyn does wonderful interpretations of designer wear and I love seeing what she does. Frankly I'm probably too lazy to draft my patterns using a TNT. I don't directly follow designers collections. If it's not in the catalogs at JoAnns, I probably don't see it. My main goal in my sewing is fit. I want my clothes to fit well--DD cups are not easy to fit! I am especially proud of myself when I am able to accomplish a fantastic fit out of a Big 4 pattern. With that said...
I love this dress. When I decided on this fabric I was hoping I didn't look like Barney--the dinosaur, not Rubble! I am extremely happy I made a muslin because the sleeves on this dress are so small, they would have been tight on a broomstick!
I started my alterations with my usual wide back adjustment. Sometimes on knits I skip this alteration but after reading the reviews on Patternreview, I decided to be extra cautious.
Usually if I make this adjustment I have to continue it onto the connecting piece. I figured my fabric had enough stretch to be able to accomodate the skirt portion of the pattern.
Without even measuring the pattern I made my usual FBA. That was sort of a mistake because I didn't take into consideration I was using a knit and the FBA was a little to generous.
I'd rather have too much room than not enough.
The next thing to tackle was the sleeve. When I say it was small believe me...it was small.
This picture shows the altered sleeve piece. Because I made the top of the sleeve wider, I figured I had to make an alteration to accomodate it.
I'm not sure I would have accurately made this alteration if not for my Duct tape dressform. I pinned the pattern to it and was able to determine exactly how much tissue I needed to add to accomodate the altered sleeve.
Pattern Description:
Fitted dress has front bodice extending into sleeves, armhole seam on back bodice, straight skirt with front pleats gathered into band to form drape effect, back darts.
Pattern Sizing:
6-20 I sewed the size 20
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
I think it does other than I used a printed fabric.
Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I liked that it looks like a wrap dress. I also like the super deep V that doesn't show any cleavage! The things I didn't like about it were in the construction. As several sewers on Patternreview suggested, I used interfacing instead of the double fold bias tape to reduce of the bulk at the rathered band. Even without the bias tape, that area of the dress is about 1/2" thick!
Fabric Used:
A knit from the 1/2 off Clearance at JoAnns
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
See above
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I'd absolutely sew it again and would highly recommend it to others.
Conclusion:
Put this one on your list. Parting shot...
