Simplicity 1803

General Thoughts on the Dress

I should sew more dresses like this.  They highlight my small upper half and camouflage my generous lower half.  I get a lot of compliments, when I dress like this.  It's cool and comfortable to boot.  This pattern is great for a pear shaped gal, because the cut-out at the bust further emphasises the upper torso and creates strong horizontal lines at the shoulders.

More pictures in the shade in the mirror.

I tend not to do it though because I worry about looking too 1950s.  I don't have the big personality to pull off costume dressing.  But there are enough of these dresses around that I feel current and not too attention-seeking.  There aren't that many off these dresses though.  I think it is a difficult style to go out and buy in a store because there is too much fitting in the bodice and women's shapes just aren't that standard.  So this dress is my own bit of casual luxury.

Here's another one just like the other one.

I bought the fabric, which is a printed cotton pique, three years ago on Goldhawk Road.  No doubt it was a bargain.  I had it in mind for my children, then realised it wasn't really a juvenile print.  It was more like a wacky, old lady print.  I had no idea what to do with it, and considered thrifting it several times.  I am glad I didn't.  I think it suits the style and spirit of this dress perfectly.  It kind of reminds me of the fruit and vegetable prints that I see in high end designer fashions at the moment.  It's not veg, but it is sort of retro and cheeky in the same way.

Posing in this situation is pretty limited.

The Pattern and the Sewing


I sewed a 14 on top and a 20 on bottom!  I wish I had sewn a 12 on top.  I recently sewed a Simplicity Amazing Fit shirt in a size 12 and it was a little small, so I opted for the 14.  I ended up having to take in the sides and bust seams quite a bit.  I also subtly changed the angle where the top front yoke meets the bodice, so that the cut-out didn't gape.  You can sew this up before adding the skirt and make quite a few tweaks to the bodice without it being too much of a chore because the facings don't get in the way and there are no facings on the arm holes, just bias binding.

I used a fairly heavy fabric with a lot of body.  I wouldn't recommend sewing this up with anything drape-y or too light weight.  I ended up using heavy fusible canvas to interface my facings.  This was overkill, but it actually worked out great.  The cut out holds it's shape beautifully and nothing is droopy or flat.

I added a waist stay, but it isn't really tight enough to make the skirt pop out.  I left too much ease in the bodice.  I didn't realise quite how much ease until I tried to tighten up the waist stay.  If I had tightened it too much, I would have had a wedge of fabric in the small of my back.  At this point, the skirt was attached, the zip was in beautifully, and I just couldn't be bothered to take it all out.

Here is a picture of the actual pattern, Simplicity 1803.

Does this woman look fat to you?

Does this young woman look fat to you?

Taken from BBC news website

No, I didn't think so.  Maybe fit, or strong, or attractive, or muscly, but not fat.  For those who aren't in the UK, and might not know her, she is Jessica Ennis.  She is 5'4" tall and weighs about 125 lbs.  She is a successful heptathlete, and has a good chance of winning a gold medal for Britain.

Someone high up in UK Athletics complained to her coach that she was too fat.  Someone hoping to bask in her reflected glory and gain from all her handwork and dedication.  Someone who understands that if you could just loose another 2 lbs of fat (where would you find it?) it might give her the edge against other athletes.  Someone who doesn't really care about her fertility, her bones, her future physical  or mental health.

Her coach kicked back rather than buckling down- hooray!  Yesterday she smashed through the British heptathlete record in Austria- hooray!

Shoe update

Hobbs, low heel, diagonal court shoe.

I went with the shoes from Hobbs.  They were a little less classic than LK Bennet's mid-heel pump, but they were much more comfortable.  For me, comfort always wins out.  I was steady and pain-free all night.  So that's a win!

My fantastic in-laws babysat for us.  I asked my father in law to take a few pictures of us, which he kindly did.  But, I forgot to ask him to make sure to get the shoes in the shot!  Oh well.

Shoes not quite in the frame!

Still no shoes.

Definitely no shoes!  You can see how bad my hay fever is, look at those puffy eyes and nose!  If anyone knows a cure, I'm interested!

I felt good in the dress, and happy to get another chance to wear it.  Though, I must admit that it was a little tighter than two years ago, ooops.  Just a little "shout out" for silk brocade fabric.  It unravels which is a pain, but is otherwise well behaved when you sew it, and it seems to glow softly.  It's light as  a puff of air and just so damn pretty!

At the dinner dance, column type dresses with sparkly trims were popular.  So were knee length, tight cocktail type dresses with exposed zippers down the back.  Everyone looked great, but I have to say that the tight dresses drove me nuts.  They just didn't fit right.  A big problem was the torso length.  There were a lot of women with the torso bagging up because there wasn't enough room in the hips and everything was moving up to find space, or the back length was just wrong. This totally ruins the effect of a sleek metal zipper down the back!  I am sure no one but me or another sewer would notice.  Shame though, because these women were pretty, well presented and toned.  A dress that fit would have been icing on the cake!

We have a winner!

Here are your random numbers:

8 

Timestamp: 2012-05-25 11:18:29 UTC

That's my "raffle pull".   The 8th comment is from Mary Nanna at Make it Smirk (a great blog btw.) Let's get in touch Mary Nanna so I can get posting details and send these to you!  Thanks to everyone else for playing along.  Have a great weekend.

Pattern Giveaway (or clearing out my stash!)

If you click on the picture, it will expand and you can read the pattern numbers and sizes.

I can't let my sewing stash get out of control, because I genuinely don't have anywhere to put it all.  So now and then, I do a little clear out.  In the past I have taken patterns to my local charity shop.  I can't imagine there is any real market for them there.  So it seems a shame.

Anyway, I have six, uncut, still in print big4 patterns to give away.  Basically, I have decided they are too difficult to fool with, or that they won't suit me.

I am happy to send them via Royal Mail first class post to any address in the world.  Just leave a comment letting me know that you are interested.

Here are the provisos:

1.  You need to a "follower"
2.  I will use the random.org site to generate a random winner
3.  I need to be able to find a way to contact you, either through you leaving an email address in your comment, or my being able to find one by clicking through on your name.
4.  You have until Friday, May 25, 2012, noon Greenwich Mean Time (London time) to comment that you are interested.
5.  I will send you the patterns via first class Royal Mail.  Nothing fancier than that.  If the patterns, get lost, stolen or never make it, that will be a shame.  But that will be that.  I am a hobby blogger, not a business, and I am not guaranteeing anything or taking on any liabilities here.  This is just a bit of fun.

Love it! Simplicity 1804

Truth is, it's cool and rainy here, and there is no reason on the horizon to believe that summer will ever come, but I went for it anyway.  A sort of triumph of hope over reason.  For me, this is the sort of dress I would want to sling on over a bathing suit and loll off the beach in flip-flops to a casual restaurant for fish tacos.

This, of course, is ludicrous!  Even in a good summer, wellie-boots are more likely than bikini's and fish tacos are pretty much unheard of, though cream teas make a good, if radically different, substitute!

It's too cold and rainy to get a picture outside, or to take a decent one inside for that matter!

Never mind, I really love this dress.  It's soooo comfortable.  Like wearing a nightgown.  It's modest, but the fabric gives it some attitude.  I can wear a bra with it, though I would note that the neckline does plunge.

Here is the side view.  I had enough fabric to eek out this dress with  reasonable symmetry from the front and the back, but I did not have enough to play with to get the side seams matching up harmoniously.

I bought the fabric a couple of years back from Gorgeous Fabrics.  I started to fret that if I didn't sew it up soon the fabric would look dated before I could get around to using it.  I'm telling myself that I just managed to "make the boat" on this one.

This was my attempt to take a picture of the back of the dress for you.  Not really something I could manage on my own with a mirror, lol!

The fabric is a slinky-poly lycra knit.  The kind of stuff that is comfortable to wear and easy to launder.  As for sewing, it doesn't curl up at the edges, but it also doesn't iron well (melting anyone?) and it is tricky to finish hems and turn under sleeve edges.

I decided to leave the hem as a simple cut edge and not to finish it as this is a casual dress; it won't unravel; and it is hanging perfectly as it is.  I did want to finish the sleeve edges though.  Trying to turn the fabric under twice and sew it up was going to be a nightmare with my sewing machine.  No serger or coverstitch here.

I tried using some vilene iron on bias tape.  The kind with a chain stitch down the middle that BurdaStyle so often calls for.  The results were terrible.  Lettuce leaf effect.

Too stretched out and wavy.

In the end I used some narrow, black, pre-made bias tape to finish off the arm holes.  This was simple to do and worked out well.  

This was just a test piece done with some left over quilt binding.

As you can see from the front this was much better.

For anyone who wants to see the pattern details for Simplicity 1804, here they are.

Simplicity 1804, I made view A.

This was a nice easy project.  I should really bite the bullet and sew some much needed pants/trousers, but I've gained a little weight and the vain part of me, really, really doesn't want to face up to it!

Simplicity 2579: Getting some wear out of it!

I sewed Simplicity 2579 out of Italian silk jacquard that I bought at Joel and Sons in London.  I wore it once to my sister's wedding 2 years ago. 

Simplicity 2579

Sadly the pictures that show the dress well on my old blog were lost.  Here are two that were taken socially at the wedding.

Formal dresses cost time and money to make and don't get worn much.  My children's school is having a Spring Ball to raise money for the school.  It's really more like a dinner dance.  Most men will be in dinner jackets (tuxedos) but some will wear their best suit.  A few women will be in long dresses, but most go short.  A full on ball gown would be too much.

So I am thinking I could give this dress another outing, if I find the right shoes to make it a little dressier.  I can't cope with really high heels.  My feet just can't take it.  I am hoping to find some shoes that might work with other outfits down the line.  At the moment the only high heels I own are a black silk pair that I have had for 15 years.  So a second pair in red, wouldn't be too extravagant, but rather a welcome addition to the closet.  For this reason, I am leaning away from shoes with cute little details like bows, etc. because I want to the shoes to last a while.

I have found two contenders.  Let me know which you think would be best.

First up, LK Bennet's Sabira Shoe in Ruby:

Quite a deep red.

Next is Hobb's Elle Diagonal Cut Court in Ruby:

This shoe is more coral than deep red.

Now don't click on the links, look at the prices and faint.  Remember, I am re-using the dress, and intend to buy shoes that I can use again, when something dressy comes up, and I don't want to use the black silk shoes that are still going strong.

Any thoughts or suggestions ladies?  Which would look best with the dress?  Which would I get the most use out of overall?