Simplicity 2917
Princess Seams? Sure! I’ll give ’em a go. This may not have been the first dress pattern I sewed, but it was the first one that I picked out and purchased. It resembled many of the dresses I already have and love in my closet so that was encouraging.
This pretty material was from the fabric haul I took home from Sophisticated Fabrics in Somerville. I fell in love with it immediately. It’s a great apparel cotton as it has that slight, silky sheen to it. The poppies were licensed from artist Cynthia Coulter and it appears this is an older fabric pattern that is unavailable online. Lucky me to have come across an out-of-print treasure! It really is a beautiful fabric and I’m so happy to have obtained enough to make a dress. Although, it’s a simple, classic floral there’s just something about the execution and technique of the painted poppies that makes it feel fresher then the average quilter granny print.
Most of this Simplicity dress was completed before the big McCall’s Fail from my previous post, but since I was waiting for zippers to come in from a Wish.com order (15 zippers for $2? I’ll take 3 orders!) I started failing on the McCalls before being able to really try on and wear this princess seamed sundress.
I made the majority of this dress from start to finish in one night. Starting by ironing the fabric and cutting the pattern at about 6:30pm and then finally going to bed at about 1am. I did have to go to Youtube to find some tutorials on how to do the sleeves, but the rest of the pieces were relatively easy to sew together.
Once the dress was done it was very loose fitting although it would have been fine enough to wear with a belt or sash (like the pattern suggests). Since I’m already making the dress from scratch however, there’s no reason why I couldn’t get in there and really custom fit it. I took in at all of the seams at the waistline. Gradually sewing out from the seam allowance and towards the center, middle of the dress. Although I did this carefully enough that I could have trimmed the access fabric from the first fit, the extra couple inches of fabric are undetectable from the right side of the dress so I decided to keep them incase I ever need to .. sigh.. let it out around the waistline. Overall, that worked, but no, it’s still not ‘perfect’ despite multiple attempt to reinstall the zipper. Just like the previous dresses, the back is still a tad wrinkly and baggy. I have no idea why. I even tried making this dress according to the ‘petit’ instructions but it still bags up on the small of my back.
All-in-all this dress was a breeze to make following the one size and it would have been fine as is with a belt or sash. Taking in the dress carefully took a little more time and some extra thought (because of the princess seams), but was well worth it. Again, I skipped the lining and fancy-schmancy zipper. I can’t wait to wear this dress come spring. It’s so pretty! My husband has let me know that this dress is his favorite so far.
Sew & Pattern 