The Green Dress: Simplicity 2591

Katie's dress was finished just in time for her trip. I hemmed the dress at midnight and took a few pictures, and the next day I drove Katie to the airport. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures taken of Katie wearing the dress--Kristen, that's your job, lol--but I'll post some when I can.

The pattern: Simplicity 2591

Description: "Misses dress with bodice variations." Not very descriptive, I know. What the envelope does not tell you is that this dress has such interesting design elements: a side panel cut on the bias that extends into the skirt creating wonderful big pockets; soft gathers, not pleats, at the neckline of view C and D, and (view C) short raglan sleeves pleated at the hem, not at the shoulder. Views A and B give the option for a boat neckline and side darts.

Size: 8-16; I made a size 8 in View C

I made a muslin of the bodice first. I'm so glad I made a muslin! Fitting is a new skill for me, and I had so much fun making the muslin and figuring out what needed to be done to make the dress fit properly. I don't have any training, but I have a couple of good reference books. So I'm learning by trial and error. Fun!

Changes I made:
~ I raised the neckline by 1 and 1/4 inch. In hindsight, 7/8" would have been better. Because of the raglan style, I also raised the top edge of the sleeves, and the back neckline by the same 1-1/4".

~ The muslin showed too much fabric on the front raglan seam, and so I took 3/8" off the pattern piece just on the front piece where it meets the sleeve. I did not take any off the sleeve piece, and this adjustment seemed to work. I'm still learning about fitting/alterations, and I think this means that the bodice was too wide on Katie. Not sure about that, though, but the alteration helped.

~ I cut the bodice at a size 10 at the sides. Katie needed the additional width through her ribcage.

~ I shortened the dress by 1-1/2" because Katie is on the short side (she gets that from her mother).

Conclusion: Katie likes this dress even better than the dress I made her last week. So do I---it looks great on her! Now that I've made the alterations to get a good fit on her, I definitely would like to make another dress from the same pattern. Unfortunately, school starts in one more week, and I've got to start planning for that. No time to sew for a while. :)

I don't know if my sister-in-law reads this blog or not, but I'm so glad that she made this pattern for her daughter, and I'm so glad that my girls saw it and liked it. Patsy, if you do read this, I'd love to show both the blue and yellow dresses you made. Email pictures to me if you like.


Thank you for reading,
Ruth

~hidden pockets~

~sleeve gathers~