Pattern Review - Simplicity D0545

If you follow my instagram feed, then you'll have seen my Gold Cup posts. It was a perfectly wonderful day of cold rain and wind. Despite the less than stellar weather, I still had a blast with my hubs and neighbors.

Our theme this year was Stepford Wives, which was awesome, because if you've read this blog for a while then you know I have a favorite style of dress, and a "Stepford" wife dress would definitely fall into that category. Not to mention, who doesn't look good in a fitted bodice and full skirt?

Finding a dress pattern was easy, deciding on a dress pattern was more difficult. There are so many! Not to mention that any number of my already completed dresses would have fit the bill, but wearing an old frock just isn't as fun. So after debating for some time about which pattern I should make, I decided on this little wrap number from Simplicity.

I love the neckline and the straightforwardness of the dress. There are no frills, and the details in the dress add so much personality to it, that I knew this dress would be the perfect jumping off point for an over-the-top hat. I didn't want the two pieces to compete, I wanted the dress to compliment the hat.

Even better still was that I didn't need to purchase fabric! Remember my stash-busting mission statement from a few months ago? Well I heeded it, and dug through some of my bins and came across a super fun suiting from ages ago, and had more than enough for the dress, and I may even be able to knock out another skirt or at least a pair of capris, for another fun outfit. Mom helped me out in the lining department by giving me 5 yards of buff colored lining that she had! Score! The only thing I purchased for this dress were the buttons, and those cost me a whooping $3 at Walmart. Not to shabby if I do say so myself.

So the pattern has a lot of pieces, but it's fairly simple to see how everything is constructed and the guide sheet is really clear about how and where the pieces fit together. The construction of this dress is straightforward, and the stitching lines for the curved areas are very helpful,  at least so far as being a visual reminder for how the arcs should be shaped. Oh and this dress has pockets! That are deep and encased between the lining and the dress. The entire dress is lined, which makes it that much more couture, and definitely helps with the fit of the dress, because most of the lining pieces are also interfaced which adds not only stability to the curves of the dress, but structure to the rest of the bodice. The added layer also felt nice with all of that rain falling.

I did pull a bonehead move, and bought the wrong size pattern. Or maybe I didn't buy the wrong pattern, because I span 4 sizes, it's sometimes a pain to buy patterns, because my sizes aren't always on the same pattern, and who wants to buy two patterns? I don't. So my fix for buying a pattern on the small end of my size range, was to take 3/8" seam allowances all over the dress. I cut out a size 16, which fits my shoulders perfectly. I'm a triangle shaped person, so my shoulders are the smallest size on the size scale. I planned this out really well....

Luckily, having years of experience and running my plan by Mom worked out exceptionally well. I wouldn't advise taking this route. Ever. It was nerve wracking, and with all of the curves it could have gone much differently. I did make sure to clearing mark all of the pattern markings. Those things are super important on a pattern like this!

In my opinion, this dress is not for a beginner sewer or even a newly intermediate sewer. Having a bit of sewing experience definitely helps with the construction  of this dress, and the curves around the neckline add to the difficulty of this dress. I would say an advanced intermediate sewer would be comfortable tackling this pattern.

I'll be writing about the hat I created for Gold Cup later this week, so be sure to stop back by!