The Sylvie Dress...a perfect summer dress

Let me introduce you to my latest make - the Sylvie Dress by Christine Haynes. It was a lovely day on Saturday so I persuaded my daughter to take some pictures.  As you can see I am squinting terribly, and Oscar was keen to get in on the action as usual!

There are two different versions of this pattern that you can make. Both versions of the dress feature an unlined sleeveless bodice with three small darts under the bust and a wide lined waistband. I will point out that the waistband looks much thinner on the pattern illustration that it actually is. The waistband is lined and interfaced which gives this section some structure.

The back bodice has darts and the neckline and armholes are finished with bias binding. View A has a gathered dirndl skirt which is basically a rectangle of fabric. The dirndl skirt also has large patch pockets.  View B has piping and a fitted pencil skirt. The illustration makes this look more like an an A-line skirt than the photos on Christine Haynes's website. I chose to make View A as this is more my personal style.

For my dress, I chose to use a polycotton that I picked up for £3 a metre in Hobbycraft. I decided not to make a muslin as the dress didn't seem like it was going to be too fitted but I didn't want to take a chance with expensive fabric. I bought two metres which was enough to cut the dress and the binding although I did have to join my bias strips together rather than using continuous pieces as per the pattern. The pattern calls for 2.75 m of 150m wide fabric or 3.3m of 115m wide fabric so you can certainly save on fabric requirements if you used ready-made bias binding. I think this fabric requirement also takes into account the amount required if your fabric has a one-directional print.

I made a size 8 based on my measurements (36 inch bust) and I made no adjustments at all.  I have to say the fit is pretty good.  It's fitted but not too tight, so makes a nice dress to wear on a hot summer's day.

The dress was easy to sew together and the instructions were very clear and detailed.  The most time consuming part of making this dress was the bias bound neckline and armholes.  I found this quite fiddly and time consuming. The pattern uses double fold bias binding rather than single fold binding, which is basically single fold pressed in half again.  The pattern instructs you how to make you own double fold bias binding. The instructions on how to attach the bias binding are super detailed, however this part can be a little confusing. There are loads of brilliant tutorials on how to use bias binding including this one on Christine Haynes' website.  I posted a comment to ask her whether I could use single fold bias binding and this is her reply:

 "Hi Catherine! Yes, it is 100% personal preference. So if you prefer single fold bias tape, you can absolutely use that in place of the double fold. From teaching I've found that my students prefer the double fold, so that's how I got in the habit of using it. But by all means use the one that you prefer. Glad you like the Sylvie Dress! Thank you!"

It was lovely to get such a detailed personal response.

I think when I make this dress again (and I am planning my next), I will draft an all-in-one facing and see if I prefer that finish.  That said my bias binding is pretty neat but I do feel like the neckline stretched out slightly despite stay-stitching. The only other change I made was to leave the pockets off as I couldn't quite get my pockets the same size.  I think I will make a card template next time and use this to press my pockets into shape. 

My invisible zip is really neat and I am getting really good at inserting them.  The only thing I still find really tricky is closing the gap at the bottom of the zipper tape.  Any tips on how to do this?  I inserted it a little low so also need to add a hook and eye. 

So to sum it up, the Sylvie Dress is a great pattern. It was fairly easy to make and I think an ambitious beginner could certainly tackle view A, although view B might be a bit more tricky.  I am surprised how few Sylvie dresses there seem to be out there in the blogosphere, given what a great pattern designer Christine Hayne's is and how popular the Emery Dress is.  The Sylvie Dress is a perfect dress for a summer's day and is super wearable.

I hope I've inspired you to give this pattern a shot.  I'd love to hear from you if you do make it or if you have any other perfect summer dresses to recommend.

Catherine
x

An Emery Dress... at last

At last I have got some photos to share with you of my latest make my Emery dress.  It's been a long time coming, it seemed to take forever to make this dress and then of course I had to get some half decent photos. Always an impossible task!

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my new dress although the bodice is a bit on the snug side. Despite making a muslin, I seem to have got this wrong. 

I made a size 8 based on my measurements (bust 36, waist 28, hips 38), but I think I need to size up next time by doing a full bust adjustment. Also the bust darts are a little too long and need shortening. 

I made the neck darts wider to deal with the gaping back neckline. The only other change I made to the pattern was that I shortened the waist slightly and I think I got this right. 

I'm really impressed with this pattern, the instructions were very good and if you got stuck, the sew-along on Christine Haynes' website is really thorough. I think an ambitious beginner could tackle this pattern with no problems. 

I chose to make the plain version, I did cut out a bow for the waist, but I decided that I liked it best without the bow.  I would like to make a long-sleeved version for winter I think. 

Things I love about this dress

The pockets
The full gathered skirt
The vintage style
The material - I bought this in John Lewis, and it was a little pricey but I think it was a good buy

I'm also pretty pleased with my invisible zip.

The bodice is lined with a cotton voile as I though lining with the main dress fabric would be too heavy. I bought the voile from Favourite Fabrics on ebay and they seem a good seller, so I will be checking what else they have on offer!  I'm pretty pleased with the lining and also my set in sleeves.

All in all the Emery dress is a great pattern and I can see why it is so popular.  I will definitely be making it again, but I think I will start again with the bodice as this one is just a bit too snug for comfortable every day wear! Luckily I traced the pattern so I still have the original pattern intact.

While making this dress I also realized that although I love dresses and I wear them a lot, I don't have a lot of hand-made everyday items so I am going to concentrate on stitching some up for my summer wardrobe.  Also much as I love dresses they can be very time-consuming...

Which do you prefer to sew, simple everyday items that sew up quickly or more time-consuming projects? 

Catherine x

Emery dress - I Made A Muslin

So I thought I'd update you with my progress so far with the Emery Dress.

Progress has admittedly been slow on sewing this dress as I have been doing a lot of reading in my spare time. I recently got addicted to the novels of Robin Hobb and have been working my way through them. Her books are amazing, if you enjoy fantasy novels I would definitely recommend reading them.

On other news, I am still following my diet and I have lost just over a stone in total now.  Still about half a stone to go but really pleased with myself.  I got a fitbit for my birthday last week too so I am finding it really interesting to see how active I am (or not as the case maybe).

Anyway, I decided to make a muslin for this dress as I have learnt from experience that this is a very important step not to skip if you want to have a wearable dress.

The material I am going to use for this dress was more expensive than I would normally buy, as I bought in John Lewis, and I really didn't want to spoil it. There is a sew-along on  Christine Haynes's website, and she also advocates making a muslin. I include a link to her blog post if you are interested.

This time I thought I would try making the whole thing, including setting in the sleeves and adding a zip so that I could get a proper idea of fit. It was a surprisingly fast process.

The muslin is made from an old duvet cover.  I cut a straight size 8 based on my measurements (36 bust).  This not a UK size 8 by the way, I think Christine has her own sizing or maybe it's an American size?

So what is the verdict? The fit is pretty good actually.  The bust darts seem to be in the right place and I don't need to do a FBA.   I am going to shorten the waist slightly as it the bodice is not quite hitting my natural waist, although I'm nervous about doing this as I don't want to shorten it too much! The only other change I need to make is sort out the dreaded back neck gape which I always seem to suffer from. Having searched the internet there seems to be loads of different ways to tackle this but as this dress already has neck darts, I am simply going to deepen them. This post here explains more about adding neck darts.

If you suffer from this problem too, check out this tutorial by By Hand London or this one by Lauren Guthrie as these look like useful methods too.

I will make my changes to my paper pattern and then hopefully cut out this weekend, so sewing can begin!

So do you always make a muslin or do you just go for it? I'd love to know.

Catherine x