I have made New Look 6262 four times now and I am pretty pleased overall with the fit of this dress. It's a simple dress with bust and waist darts and a gathered skirt, so very wardrobe friendly. I have made changes to the fit of the bodice previously, if you want to read my post here.
It can be made with or without sleeves.This is the second time I have made it with the full sleeves and to be honest there is something not quite right about them. They don't seem to sit quite right and they pull the bodice slightly I think. I am sure that I read somewhere that bodices for sleeve dresses and for sleeved dresses are shaped differently so maybe that is what is wrong as this pattern uses the same pattern piece both both styles of dresses. Anyone know more about this?
Anyway it works better as a sleeveless dress I think, although I am still pleased with this dress, and have been wearing it lots. I think if I was to make it again, I would leave the sleeves off or stick to the little cap sleeves.
The material was lovely to sew with and is a fine cotton from John Lewis. It sticks terribly to tights though so I am wearing a full slip under the dress which may account for some of the odd looking rumples on the bodice. The other thing is I have lost weight since I fitted this pattern originally so I probably need to go back to the original pattern and start again :(
I wore this dress out on a recent trip to London with my family. A nice lady stopped me on the tube, and said "I like your dress", It was so nice to be able to say, "Thank you, I made it myself!"
Can you see Oscar photo-bombing?
Catherine x
I have just looked through all your 6262s and I love all of them! I see what you mean by the sleeves not fitting quite right - I added some extra ease and made them short for full arm movement! I think this one looks great even if you're not convinced!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ellen. I like your versions too, I think this is a great basic pattern to have in your stash. Funny thing is I made it with the sleeves the time before (dress unblogged)and that one seems fine. I really hate set in sleeves, they are so tricky to do! X
DeleteLove the fabric, love the dress! It looks great on you!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteAh, looking at your photos I think you might have the same problem as me - wide shoulders! I only just realised recently that the shoulder/sleeve seam is meant to sit at the pivot point of your shoulder. I had to add a whole inch per shoulder to my current bodice toile but wow what a difference it made! Now my sleeves aren't straining and pulling at my bodice :)I followed this tutorial for the adjustment: https://www.sewalongs.com/hawthorn/hawthorn-wide-or-narrow-shoulder-adjustment
ReplyDeleteI think sleeved bodices are drafted (or meant to be drafted) with higher up armholes to give a better range of arm movement in the sleeve, so you could always try raising the armhole if your sleeve is tugging weirdly.
Sorry for the ramble but hope it's helpful. Love your fabric choice and cat photo bomb!
Thank you so much for your comment. I will have to investigate this further. I'm not really sure where the pivot point of my shoulder is, I always thought the shoulders were about right on my dresses but maybe not... I got a copy of Fit for Real people for my birthday recently so I will look this up. I think you might be right though! Lots to think about...
ReplyDeleteHere is the same dress made without sleeves and I think you can see that I do need to make this adjustment. http://thestylishstitcher.blogspot.co.uk/2015_06_01_archive.html
DeleteOpinions?
That dress is gorgeous! I love the matching bow belt too, I keep meaning to make some cute matching belts like that. The pivot point is just the end of your shoulder joint, the bit where you can feel the indentation in the socket.
DeleteFit For Real People is brilliant although mind boggling with the sheer amount of fitting advice! I bought it at the beginning of last year and I think I'm still absorbing information.
(Thought I'd reply to your comment on my post here too) Sorry if my last adjustment on my post wasn't very clear, I'll try again. Failing that I can always email you a photo of what I did to my paper pattern! I lowered the neckline edge of both my front and back bodice pieces by 1/4 inch, redrawing the shoulder angle to meet the same shoulder/ armhole edge. It creates a shallower shoulder angle and reduces the neckline but keeps the armhole circumference the same. I have no idea why but it seemed to cure the strange tilting I was experiencing. Neck darts have also helped my gapey back massively! I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably need them on all the bodices I make in non stretch fabric.
Thanks so much for your detailed reply. Sounds like we suffer from similar fitting problems. Been reading Fit for real people tonight and you are right it is mind boggling! Such a brilliant book. I think I need to adjust for a round back and this may fix the gamey back neck, the shoulders and the strangling neck that I sometimes get with boat necks... That said I feel like making something else rather than a dress at the moment! Maybe a nice simple skirt :)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Glad to share some of my limited fitting wisdom. Hope you manage to get your bodice sorted! High round back adjustment definitely helped with some of my gaping too. I spent ages thinking I needed to remove fabric from the upper back to correct the gaping so it blew my mind that I actually needed to add extra space/fabric there.
DeleteA skirt project sounds good. I like them because they don't need many fitting adjustments! :D