Emporia Patterns Cassie Dress

Here in the UK, we've just enjoyed a beautifully sunny Easter bank holiday weekend and that gave me the opportunity to wear my newly finished Emporia Patterns Cassie dress for the first time.

Cassie is a loose-fitting dress with options for a t-shirt style bodice with grown-on short sleeves, or a tie strap bodice. It has a gathered skirt that can be made with two tiers for a roughly knee-length style or three tiers for a full-length maxi dress. It's a pull-on dress with no fastenings, so it's a fairly simple project.

It's available in finished bust measurements up to 49" (tie strap bodice) or 50.5" (t-shirt bodice).

The instructions for the dress seem to be fairly easy to follow, although I have to admit that I ignored them and did my own thing. The instructions have you sew the entire front and entire back of the dress, then join the front to the back at the shoulders and all down the side seams. I decided I'd rather construct the bodice and the skirt separately and then join them together. I don't know that either method is necessarily better, the method I used is just what I'm more familiar with doing.

One thing I would recommend is to stay-stitch the neckline - this isn't mentioned in the instructions, but it will help to stop the neckline stretching out, particularly as this ends up being sewn as one of the last steps if you follow the instructions. I also interfaced the neckline facing, which isn't mentioned in the instructions. 

Personally, I also always find it better to sew two or even three lines of gathering stitches - the instructions only tell you to sew one.

I thought that the pattern/instructions were a bit lacking when it came to the measurements. They only give the finished bust measurements, with no body measurements at all and no waist/hip finished measurements. To some extent this isn't a problem because the waist and hip are loose-fitting so the measurements aren't crucial here. However, I think it would be beneficial if some guidance were given on how much ease you should aim for at the bust, and personally I would have found some extra measurements helpful.

My bust measurement is 38" and I made the size 16 (which has a finished bust measurement of 41"). 

I also made a couple of fitting adjustments. I lengthened the bodice by 2", which is fairly standard for me (I'm 5'9"). I also added two waist darts to the back bodice - when I made a toile there seemed to be too much fabric at the back compared with the front and the darts helped to fix that. I think they removed a total of about 4cm from the back waist.

As you may have noticed from the photos, I also added pockets. Because pockets are important!

The fabric that I used for my dress is a lightweight denim/chambray from Croft Mill. It's a pretty print and a really nice quality, especially for the price (£7.50 per metre). I think it works fine for this pattern, although I think I might prefer the dress in a fabric with slightly more drape (that's nobody's fault but my own!). 

Overall, I'd say that I like my Cassie dress but I don't love it - not every dress can be a favourite after all. Similarly, I think that the pattern is alright but it could be better. At the end of the day though, it's a really comfy dress and I like the floral print so it'll definitely get plenty of wear - not a roaring success, but definitely not a failure either!

Closet Core Patterns Core T-shirt

When you finish sewing a pattern for the first time and immediately cut out a second version, that's a fairly good verdict isn't it? That's what I've just done with the Core t-shirt, a free pattern from Closet Core Patterns.

The Core t-shirt is a classic crew neck t-shirt. It has a slightly boxy silhouette and comes in two lengths (semi-cropped and hip length) with two sleeve options (short or three-quarter), as well as optional features of a patch pocket and a back neck and shoulder binding. For both of my versions, I've used the semi-cropped length with the short sleeves and added the shoulder/neckline binding. 

It comes in two size ranges - 0 to 20 (full bust 31" to 46") and 14 to 32 (full bust 42" to 60"). 

The pattern was fun to sew. The instructions are really detailed and I found them easy to follow. I have made a fair few t-shirts before so was familiar with a lot of the steps, but the neckline binding was new to me and that was also no problem. You do need to be precise and take your time with that step, but as long as you follow the instructions you shouldn't have any trouble.

The binding is actually one of my favourite things about the pattern - it gives a really neat finish to the neckline, and as a bonus is a perfect place for adding a pretty label. The two that I've used here both come from This Is For Makers - I'd definitely recommend their labels as they're excellent quality and come in lovely designs.

I made a size 12 at the shoulders/bust blending out to a 14 at the waist hip. They're the sizes recommended for my measurements and I think the fit worked out nicely. It's boxy as intended, but it's not at all baggy. I added 1.5 inches to the length of the semi-cropped version - I'm about 5'9" so lengthening patterns is very standard for me.

The fabrics that I've used for my t-shirts are both coincidentally left over from making pyjamas last year. The paler pink geometric flowers originally came from Simple Life Fabrics, and the brighter pink with the ladies printed on it I'm pretty sure came from Sew Totally Me. I really like both fabrics, so I'm glad that I've been able to squeeze a second project out of them!

As I've already sewn two versions of the Core t-shirt, it's probably no surprise to hear that I really like this pattern. It's enjoyable to sew and comfy to wear, with a really nice fit. If you're on the lookout for a classic crew neck t-shirt, I'd definitely recommend giving this one a try. Thank you Closet Core Patterns for the great free sewing pattern!