Make With Mandi Penny Dress

The Make With Mandi Penny dress has been on my 'to sew' list for a while and I've been keeping my eye out for some interesting fabric to combine with the pattern. Finally I found the right candidate and I'm happy to share my Penny dress with you now!

The Penny is a woven dress with a loose-fitting bodice and tiered skirt with in-seam pockets. The bodice has a rounded neckline with two depths, and the sleeves can be made in long, mid or short lengths and are intended to have elasticated hems (more on that later!). The skirt has knee or midi length options.

For my version I used the short sleeves, higher neckline and midi skirt.

The finished bust measurements for the dress range from 34" to 55⅜".

I'll mention now that I was using the version of the pattern that was included with Simply Sewing magazine, so it's entirely possible that there may be some differences in the pattern directly from Make With Mandi. For example, the magazine version pattern accidentally omitted the pocket pattern pieces - if you need them, I found them available to download here.

I enjoyed sewing my Penny dress. The instructions had a good level of detail and I found them easy to follow. They're illustrated with photos which are mostly clear. One thing I thought was a bit odd was that the instructions refer to topstitching a couple of times, when what they're telling you to do would generally be called understitching. 

I found the order of the steps a bit odd - they have you start by stay stitching the neckline and sewing the bodice shoulder and side seams, then take you on to sewing the skirt, before returning to the bodice and sewing the facings and sleeves. There's nothing wrong with that, but it felt like it dotted about a bit to me so I followed the instructions, but did them in my own preferred order. 

The version of the pattern I used didn't give you any body measurements, just finished garment measurements. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, but it would be helpful if they gave some guidance about how much ease the pattern is intended to have. I made a straight size 12, which gives me around 2" of ease at the bust, and the waist and hips are looser fitting.

I made a couple of alterations. The first was to lengthen the bodice by 1.5", which is a standard alteration for me. I also lowered the bust dart by 1", which is not something I normally have to do. I also chose to omit the elastic from the sleeve hems - when I made a toile it just didn't feel like the sleeve hems on the short sleeves were loose enough round my arms to need elastic and I like them as they are. 

The fabric that I used is a lightweight cotton that I bought from Koala Kreations. I really like the print - it's a bit different to anything else that I've seen around recently. I think it's a good weight of fabric for this pattern and should be nice and cool to wear over the summer.

All in all, I enjoyed sewing my Penny dress, it turned out really nicely, and I think it will be a welcome new addition to my wardrobe - I can see it being worn a lot!