Jennifer Lauren Raine Dress

Usually I buy fabric with a specific project in mind, but sometimes I spy a print that's so pretty that it demands to be bought before plans have been formulated. The cotton that I've used for today's project definitely falls into the latter category.

I'd seen various online shops selling it last summer and was tempted but managed to resist it. That all changed when I saw it in the flesh in the John Lewis sale - I think the colours just come across better in real life than they do on screen. Although to be fair, the fact that it was 50% off may have also helped because I do love a bargain! The only downside was that it was January so definitely not seasonally appropriate to sew immediately.

Two and a half metres came home with me and were squirreled away in my stash to await warmer weather. Over the last couple of months I'd been pondering what to make with it whenever I saw it sitting on the shelf.

After I made my Eden jumpsuit, I had decided that this would make a nice second version of that pattern but when I went to cut it out I had this horrible vision of ending up with flowers or leaves bursting out at unfortunate places around the crotch seam! Once I'd had that thought, I couldn't get it out of my mind and it seemed like it would be difficult to avoid due to the spacing of the flowers. It's the sort of thing that most people wouldn't notice but I definitely would and it would have annoyed me.

So the jumpsuit plan was scrapped, and I went back to the drawing board. Then when I was wearing the Jennifer Lauren Raine dress that I made last year it suddenly struck me that this would be the perfect pattern for my beautiful floral stripes. The simple darted bodice with grown on sleeves and lovely full skirt are perfect for showing off a print, and the waistband would give me the opportunity to play with the stripe direction. Changing the stripes around also really shows off the nicely shaped waistband, which is good because I think it got a bit lost in the print that I used for my first Raine dress.

There's not a lot new to say about the construction of this dress that I didn't say when I talked about my first Raine dress. The only thing that I did differently this time was to lengthen the skirt a bit more - I added an extra 2 inches onto the length for the biggest size.

The Raine dress is a satisfying pattern to sew - there are some slightly trickier construction steps in comparison with what you'd usually expect from a simple looking unlined dress, but the instructions are very clear so as long as you follow them you should be fine. They give a nice finish on the inside as well, which is always pleasing.

All in all, I really enjoyed sewing this dress, it's lovely to wear and I'm glad that I finally found the right use for this cotton. It's worth taking the time to be sure that you make the perfect pattern and fabric pairing, isn't it?

Jennifer Lauren Raine Dress

Sometimes a new pattern is serendipitously released just at the same time as I get my hands on some perfectly suited fabric. That's what happened for this project, when Jennifer Lauren introduced the Raine dress to the world just as Seasalt had a fabric sale and I picked up some pretty cotton voile (sadly no longer in stock).

The Raine dress is a 1940s inspired dress with a gently curved waistband, sweetheart or scooped neckline, slanted pockets, and a gathered or pleated skirt.

I particularly like the sweetheart neckline - it's a little more angular than sweetheart necklines often are, which I think makes it look slightly more contemporary whilst still retaining a vintage influence. I also like the fact that the curved waistband (which I'm hoping you can see more clearly in the photo below than in the photos of me wearing the dress where it's pretty much camouflaged!) makes it a bit different to other patterns I own, so I snapped it up pretty much as soon as I saw it.

Another nice feature of the Raine dress is that it comes with multiple bust cups (A to D), which should help to eliminate some fitting adjustments.

Having said that, the bust cups and general body measurements did make me a bit unsure about what size to pick - I'm firmly an A cup (or if anything, less than an A according to the measurements in the pattern!), but my actual bust measurement (38") put me between a size 14 and 16 for the A cup bodice measurements. My waist and hip measurements both put me in a 14, so I decided to go with the A cup bodice in a 14 and see what happened when I made a toile.

Thankfully, my toile fit fairly well so I think that was the right choice! I just needed a fraction more room around the bust, so I resewed the side seams with a 1cm seam allowance instead of 1.5cm. I also adjusted the shoulder seams by the same amount, because I felt like I needed a tiny bit more space in the sleeves/armhole.

I also did my standard bodice lengthening adjustment (this time by 2cm), and cut the skirt at the length for the biggest size, which effectively lengthened it by a couple of centimetres (for reference, I'm about 5ft 8"). If I make this again (and I'd definitely like to!), I'd probably lengthen the skirt just a tad more, but I'll happily wear the skirt this length in this version.

The Raine dress is rated as being for intermediate to advanced sewists, and I think that's probably fair. There are a couple of steps that are slightly trickier than an average unlined dress, such as the all-in-one facing and the side zip. The instructions are really clear and thorough though, so if you've got a couple of dressmaking projects under your belt and you feel like a challenge then just take it slowly and you should be OK.

I really like the finish on the inside of the dress - the all-in-one facing and a facing/lining inside the waistband mean that I'd say that it's the neatest looking non-lined bodice that I've ever made.

 

The instructions do also call for you to topstitch around the waistband and neckline, which I elected not to do mainly because I couldn't find quite the right shade of blue thread, and when I tried white topstitching it looked a bit too prominent for my liking.

I also deviated slightly from the instructions when it came to gathering the skirt. The instructions call for you to gather the whole skirt including the pockets, but my pockets completely refused to gather so I gave in and just gathered the front skirt in the middle between the pockets. It's a bit different, but I think it looks fine.

All in all, I'm really pleased with my Raine dress. It was a pleasure to sew, and it's lovely to wear. The vintage inspired silhouette is really pretty, and the cotton voile is nice and breezy to wear in this glorious weather. What more could you want from a summer dress?!