Simplicity 2588 Dress & #patternswap19

When Alice @the.polka.dot.palace and Emma @thezipperfoot announced that they'd be hosting The Great Big Pattern Swap again this year, I was quick to rummage through my pattern stash to find some neglected beauties to send to new, more appreciative homes. I managed to snap up a couple of lovely new-to-me patterns in return and I've now sewn up one of them. Here's my version of Simplicity 2588, kindly sent to me by Pavla.

Simplicity 2588 is one of the Project Runway series, and is for a dress with fitted, princess seam bodice, the possibility to make it sleeveless or use flat or pleated sleeves, neckband/yoke options, and a pleated flared or straight skirt. The pattern now seems to be out of print (correct me if you know otherwise!) but, as I type at least, there are copies available to buy on Amazon and ebay if you like the look of it.

The skirt choice was a no-brainer for me - flared every time! I considered going for a sleeveless dress, but ultimately decided that I'd get more wear out of one with sleeves, and chose the flat sleeve option.

When I made my toile, I used the slimmer neckband piece but found the neckline was too wide for me (I'd have been constantly fiddling with it to get it to sit right!). On my finished version, I used the wider yoke piece instead, which definitely avoids this problem. If anything, it goes the other way and the neckline now feels a little high. It's not going to stop me wearing this dress, but if I make another one I'd possibly trim down the yoke by a centimetre or so to make the neckline just a touch lower.

In terms of sizing, for my measurements the pattern recommends a 16 for the bust, and an 18 for my waist and hips. Based on the finished garment measurements, 16 for the bust seemed the right choice but I thought the 18 might be a bit big at the waist, and with the flared skirt I knew hip sizing wouldn't be too important. I decided to make a straight size 16, but taper to a fractionally smaller (about 1.2 cm instead of 1.5) seam allowance at the waist on the side seams only to allow a bit of extra breathing space. Thankfully that worked out nicely.

I also lengthened the bodice by 1.5 cm and the skirt by 5cm, which are both fairly standard adjustments for me (I'm around 5'9" for reference).

The sewing process was fairly straightforward. As with all commercial patterns, the instructions don't hold your hand every step of the way like indie patterns tend to, but I didn't find anything confusing or hard to follow. The pattern uses a lapped zip; I tend to favour invisible zips, but I decided to follow the instructions and use a lapped zip this time and I'm glad I did. Plus it's good to do different things every now and then, isn't it?

The fabric I used is a lovely cotton voile from Seasalt (in case you don't know, Seasalt currently have a sale on some of their fabric - you're welcome, and/or I'm sorry if you didn't want to be tempted!). It's a great print, and it's a nice cool fabric to wear in the sunny weather we've been enjoying in the last week or so.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my Simplicity 2588 and I could definitely see myself making another, albeit with the slight alteration to the neckline I mentioned above. I'm happy to have given this pattern a new home, and I hope that the patterns that I sent out have futures that are just as successful with their new owners! And a big thank you to Alice and Emma for organising the swap!

Itch to Stitch Kalispell Dress Sewing Pattern Review

Sometimes a sewing pattern grows on you gradually, and sometimes you know as soon as you see it that you "need" to make it. For me, the Itch to Stitch Kalispell dress definitely fell into the second category! It's been a while since I sewed a pretty dress, and the Kalispell seemed like the perfect pattern to remedy that situation.

The Kalispell dress is a slightly vintage style, with a princess seamed bodice and full skirt with inverted box pleats. The dress has a V neck and a front button closure with button band. It has options for cap or flare sleeves (I chose the cap sleeves) and in seam pockets. The pattern also has different bodices for A, B, C, D and DD cups, which is helpful for getting a good fit.

This was the first Itch to Stitch pattern that I've made, and I was really impressed with it. The PDF is fairly big given all the different bodice pieces, but there are clear directions included about which pages you need to print for which sizes/options.

The instructions are very detailed (as an example, there are 11 different instructions just about applying interfacing and stay stitching!) and easy to follow. The diagrams accompanying them are also perfectly clear. All of the notches/seams etc. matched up nicely when I was sewing, and I didn't have any trouble at all with making the dress.

The only thing that I found slightly odd was that the instructions have you hem the skirt before it's even attached to the bodice. I don't know about you, but I definitely like to try on a dress before hemming it to get the length just right as even a small change in the hem length can change a dress from dowdy to delightful.

The instruction to do this does make sense in terms of the rest of the construction because the hem needs to be finished before the button band is attached. To get round this, I left the skirt unhemmed, then when it came to attaching the button band I stopped stitching a few inches above the where the hem should be. Once I'd finished sewing the rest of the dress, I hemmed the dress as I wanted and then finished off the button band and that worked fine. Hopefully that all makes sense!

In terms of sizing I used the A cup bodice and made a size 10. That's the size recommended for my bust and hip measurements; my waist measurement is actually between an 8 and a 10, but based on the finished garment measurements I thought I'd be happier with a 10. Thankfully that worked out nicely for me! I'd say the sizing is good, with just the right amount of ease to make the dress fitted whilst still being comfortable to wear.

As for adjustments - I lengthened the bodice by an inch and a half, which is fairly standard for me. Because of the added length, I also altered the button spacing and used more buttons.

To give you an indication of skirt length - I'm about 5'9" and this is the skirt straight from the pattern with a slightly bigger hem than called for in the pattern (I think half an inch more), and it's knee length rather than the midi length intended for the Kalispell.

The fabric I used came from Seasalt last summer. It's a cotton crepe that I managed to pick up at a bargain price (yay!). It's a nice quality fabric as I've come to expect from Seasalt, but I didn't enjoy sewing with this as much as I've liked their cotton voiles and poplin. It's a very fine fabric (this dress would probably be too sheer if I wasn't wearing a slip with it), but also quite crisp, and my sewing machine had a tendency to snag it, which it has never done for any fabric before. It did cause a couple of marks in the fabric, but thankfully they seem to be fairly inconspicuous in the finished garment.

The slight issues with sewing the fabric made me feel a bit downhearted about this dress when I was making it, but I'm happy to report that I feel a lot more positive having worn it. It's a lovely dress to wear as the skirt is pleasingly swishy! I'd quite like to make another one in a fabric with a bit more body to it at some point to see what that would be like, but for now I'm more than happy with this version of the Kalispell!

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?!

A double dose of New Look 6723

It's been a little while since I last posted. There's been no shortage of sewing going on in the meantime, but the projects I've been making have either felt not worthy of their own blog post (pyjama trousers for my nephew, and a very simple t-shirt for my dad) or they have been for people who don't necessarily want to be subjected to a whole blog photo session (my mum). Thankfully the dress I made for my mum turned out so nicely that I decided to make my own version which I'm here to share with you today.

The pattern is New Look 6723. I made a couple of versions of view D of this pattern a few years ago (here and here) and I've worn both of them a lot so, given my proclivity for making certain patterns repeatedly (I'm looking at you Emery dress!), it's surprising that it's taken me this long to make another version.

I was mainly prompted into making this because, having promised to make a dress for my mum, I was having a bit of trouble getting toiles of the original pattern she picked (Simplicity 8294) to fit. I'd got a bit frustrated with the whole thing so one weekend when I was staying with my parents, I had one of my earlier 6723s with me and got her to try it on because we're a pretty similar size other than the fact that I'm a bit taller. It fit really nicely, so the original pattern was abandoned and I set about tweaking 6723 slightly to fit with my mum's requests.

Mum definitely didn't want the sweetheart neckline, so I used view B of 6723 but lowered the neckline slightly using the Simplicity pattern as a guide. Other than that, the only changes I made were the same as for my two first versions, namely using an invisible zip instead of a lapped one (which meant I slightly altered the construction order) and adding in pockets. And as soon as I'd finished my mum's dress, I cut out a second version of my very own!

I persuaded my mum that she did want to make a cameo blog appearance really, so this is the version I made for her. It's sewn using some lovely Seasalt fabric. I'm extremely happy about Seasalt selling fabric! I've been saying for ages that they should - I love a lot of their prints and in the past I'd have happily bought their dresses, but now that I sew I have to admit that, like most RTW dresses, the waistline is slightly high on me. So it's excellent that they've somehow read my mind!

The fabric is lovely quality - it's fairly light weight so I think you'd want to line bodices at least, but that's fine for me because I prefer lined bodices anyway. I've got a length of the Corde Fleur Night print sitting waiting for me to decide what to sew with it, and I'm seriously tempted to treat myself to another print as well.

Anyway, I'll stop gushing about Seasalt fabric now and gush about Liberty tana lawn instead because that's what I used for my version. This particular print is called Mushaboom, and I picked it up in the Liberty sale back in January. I love the fact that the print is a bit larger scale than most tana lawns, and also that the colours are so saturated.

It really is gorgeous, and tana lawn is great for wearing when the weather's hot. So much so that in the recent heat wave I semi-jokingly declared that I want enough Liberty dresses so that I can get through any heat waves clad exclusively in tana lawn. My fabric budget is far from limitless though, so I might have to build up that collection gradually by taking advantage of sales and/or ebay bargains!

All in all, I'm really happy with how both of these dresses turned out. It's a lovely summer dress shape - nice and breezy for when the weather's hot without being so sundress-y that it looks like it should only be worn on a beach. Don't be surprised if you see more of them round these parts in the future!