I made this dress back in October. I wanted to make a dress that I could wear to work. I used a crepe de chine fabric that I bought from Fabric.com. I really like the print of the fabric and felt that it would go well with this style of dress. The print kind of reminds me of an 80’s style dress with it’s geometrical patterns except not as loud. No neon colors in this 80’s vibe print, so it’s a more subdued 80’s vibe.
There are 4 views and a belt pattern included in this pattern. There are 2 options for sleeves- short and elbow length dolman sleeves. There are also options to make pants, a short dress or a midi dress. The pants option is a jumpsuit. I decided to sew up view D which I chose because of the sleeves and length of the dress.
I decided not to sew in the zipper since it’s not really needed anyway for the dress. I took the front piece, folded on the line and took into account the 5/8 seam line on each side. I also took that into account for the front facing piece which is also part of the zipper. My calculations were not perfect (and also not correct), so the V neck was not a perfect V shape. Somehow it worked out. Another sewing lesson learned.
I also sewed in the pockets, but somehow when I put the elastic into the waist, the pockets stuck out. I think it’s because the pockets are aligned with the waist where the elastic sits? Or maybe and most likely, I didn’t sew them in correctly. I tried to figure out how to tack down the pockets, but nothing worked so I ended up removing the pockets… What’s a dress without pockets!?!
Overall, with all of it’s flaws, this dress turned out pretty well and most importantly, still wearable. In fact, I wore it a few times already (mostly to work). It’s very comfortable. I really like the print. I like the sleeves. I like the 80’s vibe. If I make another dress from this pattern, I hope that I’ve learned my lessons from the mistakes that I’ve made so that I can have a smoother V neck and most importantly, pockets! I might consider making the pants jumpsuit. I’m not very good at invisible zippers yet, so I might wait until I’ve mastered that.
Practice makes (almost) perfect! Happy Sewing!
Adventures of Sweet Monday 