Sewing a Dress....simplicity 2444

 Hello Lovelies,
I have a little ta-dah to share with you today.... happy :0)

But lets start at the beginning shall we.

Back in April the lovely JANE posted about a gorgeous skirt she had made....at the end of her post she shared her latest pattern purchase...........

 I did a little googling and discovered lots of lovely versions of this dress out in blogland. 

THIS lady has made lots of versions....all lovely.

How gorgeous is THIS version

and how classy is THIS version

I had to order it too....hope you don't mind Jane.

 I planned to make mine from some stash fabric and when I shared my thoughts in THIS post I got a very helpful comment from a lovely, regular commenter on my blog.............

Love the dress pattern. I always take my measurements again whenever I make a new dress. I also include my underarm measurement and check that against the pattern itself, as well as making a copy of the bodice to my measurements in calico. It saves a lot of grief. I discovered that my underarm measurement is a size smaller than my bust. Very important so it isn't baggy or too tight across the decolletage. 

Thank you SO MUCH Robyn.....your advice was much appreciated ♥♥♥

Yes, of course I should make a calico of the bodice

I cut out a size 12 bodice in some stash fabric............

Marking the darts with Taylor tacks and sewing as instructed............

it turned out huge.

I ended up taking an inch or so out of the centre front and back.........and also making the armholes smaller......

I'm a complete novice when it comes to pattern adjustment but I'm leaning that Ease is included in patterns....for this bodice the ease is 3inches.........which seams huge for a fitted garment.........

There is even a nice definition of ease printed on the pattern :0)

Making that Calico was invaluable. It enabled me to cut out the actual fabric with relative confidence. I even attempted a "small bust adjustment" by reducing the size of my darts, so that the bodice fitted snugly across the bust without being too tight on the waist.

My actual fabric for this version was still just thrifted stash stuff, but of course I didn't want to end up with nothing to show for hours of sewing.

 I made the bodice to my altered pattern and because my fabric had a checked pattern I even broke the rules and ignored the grain line to get vertical and horizontal lines on my skirt........

An air erasable pen was handy to mark the pleats..........

This was actually an easier pattern to assemble than I had thought.
I loved the way you attached the front and back bodice parts to their respective skirt panels BEFORE sewing the side seams.....

Next I added a flat zip ( the only type I know how to do). I like to sew the opening closed with a long machine stitch before sewing in the zip and then unpick the basting stitches...........

Here the basing stitches are still in situ

The fabric I was using was a thin polyester cotton and I decided it would be best to line the bodice part at least.
I searched my stash and found this old lining that I had cut out of a skirt as it made it too tight.....it was lovely thin cotton....perfect...........

I cut out the lining bodice in exactly the same way as the dress bodice. 

 The pattern called for fabric facings lined with interfacing , but I just used the pattern pieces to cut out iron on interfacing.............

Which I fused to my bodice neckline before sewing it together...........

A brilliant You Tube video found HERE explained how to join my lining to my bodice ( I would NEVER have figured this out for myself )

Then it was just a case of hand sewing the bottom of the lining to the skirt. And attaching the back edges to the zipper tape..............

I'm so pleased with how this lining worked out.

And here is the finished dress

TA-DAH...........

 I'm very happy with my finished dress

The lining means there are no exposed seams in the bodice. It's so neat and  comfortable to wear.........

 Here is the hem with it's hand sewn finish..........

I think I did quite well with this too.............

And here it is on...........

 Look........IT FITS ♥♥♥

 The arm hole are just the right size. The bust is not too big and the waist is not too tight.....Yipee.

Here's the back view.............

I really am thrilled with this dress. It was a joy to make and I love the finished garment.

I would like to change a couple of things about it. I shortened the hem by a couple of inches and now I wish that I didn't....dang. 

The pockets in the skirt are a bonus but I do feel they accentuate my pear shaped figure.

And the zip looks very amateurish............

 Next time I will try a concealed zip

But overall I'm more than happy with my first attempt at this pattern. I can see why it's so popular.

Don't look at the zip.......look at the lurverly arm holes :0)

I think it looks pretty good for a dress made out of a pre-loved duvet cover...............

The only other things I bought to make this dress ( if you don't count the pattern....which can be used again....and came from Amazon...there's a link in my side bar) is a zip and some thread.

Thrifty sewing makes me happy, but I may splurge on some new fabric especially for my next version of this dress.

Jacquie x

P.S. just in case you were wondering.......my pink polka dot hangers are from Wilkos :0)