Sew Over It Doris Dress
I have spent a very long time checking out the patterns by Sew Over It. Trying to decide if the style is really me. Can I pull of the retro look? Will it suit me? I almost bought the Vintage Shirt Dress pattern, and then decided to think some more. Ultimately, on our Christmas trip to London, I decided to leave the kids at home and venture out to Clapham ALONE (yay!) to visit Sew Over It in person. And...I walked away with not one, but 2 pieces of fabric, and the pattern for the Doris Dress. I fell in love with the cotton lawn first, and then had to find a pattern for it (not really a hardship!).
I made a muslin while my mother was visiting so I could get her to help with fitting issues. The dress has pleats on the front and back bodice, not darts. This was fine for the front, but I have a small back, and if I had used the ties to pull the dress as tight as I needed it, it wouldn't have looked great. So I re-drafted the pleats to make them darts and also re-drew the cutting lines very slightly for the back skirt pieces to fit the modified bodice.
The picture doesn't really do the fabric or the dress justice - I'll try to get a decent picture of the dress being worn! I cheated and didn't put buttonholes - just sewed the buttons on the front. The bodice doesn't have to open to get the dress on anyway.
This was my first Sew Over It pattern, and overall, I'm very pleased with the construction and the instructions. I would probably modify the way the invisible zip is added, but otherwise the instructions were clear and detailed.
So now I have my eye on the Vintage Shirt Dress again (having decided that it's a style I quite like, and I think suits me), and the gorgeous Atelier Brunette cotton lawn that is on the Sew Over It website. I'm trying to decide if it would be too indulgent to order some fabric and ask my sister-in-law to bring it with her when she visits us in a couple of weeks. It's really a good thing that shipping costs to Singapore are so high - it's the only thing that stops me from doing a lot more online fabric shopping!
I made a muslin while my mother was visiting so I could get her to help with fitting issues. The dress has pleats on the front and back bodice, not darts. This was fine for the front, but I have a small back, and if I had used the ties to pull the dress as tight as I needed it, it wouldn't have looked great. So I re-drafted the pleats to make them darts and also re-drew the cutting lines very slightly for the back skirt pieces to fit the modified bodice.
The picture doesn't really do the fabric or the dress justice - I'll try to get a decent picture of the dress being worn! I cheated and didn't put buttonholes - just sewed the buttons on the front. The bodice doesn't have to open to get the dress on anyway.
This was my first Sew Over It pattern, and overall, I'm very pleased with the construction and the instructions. I would probably modify the way the invisible zip is added, but otherwise the instructions were clear and detailed.
So now I have my eye on the Vintage Shirt Dress again (having decided that it's a style I quite like, and I think suits me), and the gorgeous Atelier Brunette cotton lawn that is on the Sew Over It website. I'm trying to decide if it would be too indulgent to order some fabric and ask my sister-in-law to bring it with her when she visits us in a couple of weeks. It's really a good thing that shipping costs to Singapore are so high - it's the only thing that stops me from doing a lot more online fabric shopping!
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