"Eleanor" Dress

I bought this lovely corduroy fabric last winter to make something for Emily that would go with the striped tights she owned but didn't match anything. A year has passed, and I knew this would be the last winter the tights would fit my daughter. So I finally made her a dress from the fabric that matched the tights that will only fit a few months longer.... : )

Pattern: Ottobre 6/2010, design #10, "Eleanor" dress; A-line dress with long sleeves gathered into wide cuffs; big pointy collar; yoke with tucks.

Mostly, I like this pattern, but there were a few things I had problems with: I disliked the way Ottobre has you do the sleeve placket. Basically, you are to cut the slit in the sleeve and then just narrowly hem the raw edges of the slit. Umm....no good. Instead, I cut a bias strip and made a placket following the method described in Betzina's Power Sewing (not the kind of placket you'd use in a man's shirt, but a simple bias bound placket).

I also disliked the wideness of the dress. It looks cute on the model in the magazine, but I found it too wide for my daughter. I added narrow ties to the sides of the dress to pull in the fullness. I sewed the ties into the side seams 3" down from the armholes.


The three brown buttons on the yoke are all mismatched. Call it a design element. The truth is, we are snowed in and I couldn't get to the fabric store to buy buttons. So I used what I had in my stash that worked. Yep, it's a design element.

Overall, I'm happy with this dress and look forward to seeing Emily wear it come Sunday (if we are no longer snowbound!). Mostly, I'm happy that I'm sewing again. Hey, sewing room, I have missed you!

Ruth