Have you ever had a sewing project that feels like it might be doomed? That was definitely the case for me with this dress as it involved lots of little niggles, but thankfully in the end it's maybe not entirely perfect, but definitely perfectly wearable! Here's my Sew Me Something Florence dress...
The Florence dress is a loose-fitting midi dress with two views. View 1 has a bound button placket on the front bodice and darted three-quarter sleeves, while view 2 (which I made) has a bias bound neckline with a keyhole back and gathered long sleeves. Both versions have a gathered skirt with cut away pockets.
The pattern comes in two size ranges, with 6-20 covering bust sizes from 77-110cm and 20-34 for bust sizes from 118 to 153 cm.
My problems with this project were mainly related to the fabric. I bought the fabric from Backstitch and it's a navy blue and white polka dot viscose. While it's described simply as viscose on their website, I'd actually call it a viscose twill - which was initially quite a pleasant surprise because I've had good experiences using viscose twill in the past.
Unfortunately when I pre-washed the fabric the blue bled a bit, particularly around the selvedges, and some of the polka dots turned pale blue rather than white. As it was worst around the selvedges, I was able to avoid the most severely affected areas when cutting out my pattern pieces so there are some dots with a distinctly blue tinge on my finished dress, but it's not too noticeable from a distance. I'm a bit concerned about what might happen when I have to wash the dress though!
The fabric also snags fairly easily, and unfortunately chose to do so right up the front of the bodice when I was sewing the waist seam, leaving me with a very noticeable white line in the middle of a navy section. With a bit of patience, I was able to make it look a bit better but it's still visible close up. Maybe if the blue runs again when I wash the dress that'll help in this case! You've got to look on the bright side, haven't you?!
Actually sewing the dress was mostly a fairly straightforward experience. The instructions are clear, but I would say maybe aren't as detailed as some indie patterns. For example, I may have been missing something, but I don't think they ever actually tell you to sew the two halves of the back skirt together - it's fairly obvious that you need to do that, but it should still be mentioned.
It's a personal preference, but I'm not a huge fan of the way the keyhole neckline is finished (the centre back seams are just pressed and then topstiched) or of the exposed neckline binding. I also think it would be easier to press the folds into the binding before stitching it onto the neckline rather than sewing it on and then pressing. If I make the dress again, I'd be tempted to draft a facing for the neckline, or maybe to use binding but attach it so it's on the inside.
When it comes to picking a size, I'd definitely recommend consulting the finished garment measurements (the pattern does advise you to do this too). My body measurements would suggest I should make a size 16, but when I looked at the finished garment measurements I could tell that would be bigger than I wanted. I actually made a size 12 and it's perfectly big enough for me - it's still loose-fitting, but it's not overly baggy.
I lengthened the bodice by 2cm and the sleeves by 2.5cm (standard for me because I'm taller than average). I also made a slight mistake when cutting out my fabric, and that combined with avoiding some of the worst blue areas meant that I didn't have quite as much fabric as I needed, so my skirt is about 7.5cm shorter than it should be. Thankfully it's still plenty long enough.
While making this project wasn't the smoothest process, the finished dress has actually turned out surprisingly well! It's really comfy, and you wouldn't notice the slight problems with the fabric if you don't look too closely. I know I'll enjoy wearing it, and I'd definitely consider making another version in future. So thankfully my Florence dress turned out not to be doomed at all!
