Simplicity 'Amazing Fit' dress - finished!

Fortunately I recovered from my mishap with this dress (confessed to in my last post) pretty quickly and now, of course, I’m telling myself that I really do love the tab and buttons. Isn’t it funny how we Sewists can so quickly adapt and think positively? A ‘foolish mistake’ can become a ‘design decision’ and so we find ourselves with a dress we love.

Anyway, put some sunglasses on, because here it is

That orange is pretty dazzling isn’t it? In the summertime I’m a sucker for bright colours – orange, yellow, throw in a bit of hot pink and I’m happy!

The fabric is a cotton pique that I purchased from Elliott Berman in New York and I think it’s just right for this style – it’s soft but not too thin, it has some body but isn’t too stiff. Normally I’m a bit of a lining fiend but, as the pattern didn’t call for a lining, and I felt this fabric would be good on its own, I have made it unlined.

The pattern is Simplicity 2648 and the instructions are interesting – I think they’re either genius or annoying, depending on what you want. It’s an ‘Amazing Fit’ pattern so they give you loads of helpful instructions on how to get the fit just right but in order to do this they ask you to baste the whole dress together, make your adjustments, then TAKE IT APART and sew it together again DIFFERENTLY. What I mean by this is that you baste the front bodice and front skirt together then you baste the back bodice and back skirt together and then baste front to back (so it’s easy to fit down the sides). Then you take it apart and sew it together the more usual way – i.e. sew the bodice, then sew the skirt, then join the two together. It’s great if you need to be guided through the fitting process.

Personally, I didn’t do it that way. I bought the pattern because it has separate pattern pieces for A, B, C or D, cups (always a big selling point for me!) and, of course I really liked the style. I like the close-fitting princess seam bodice and I like that the skirt front has two vertical seams with no darts. I did the fitting by making a muslin. I am such a weird shape that I usually have to make all sorts of adjustments that wouldn’t be so easy to make later, once the nice fabric was cut. However, as long as you are prepared to sort out which part of the instructions you want to follow and which you want to ignore, then I really recommend this pattern.

Before I go, here is a close-up of that button tab that I’ve grown to love so much

But next time I make this pattern I’m going for the version with the belt because I think I’m going to love that too. Hey, I’m easy to please!