Guest blog and dress pattern review

Thank you to Emily for this wonderful pattern review of the Family Reunion Dress by Oliver & S.

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I'd been wanting to try out an Oliver + S pattern for a while, but for various reasons hadn't got round to it. However, when I saw the 'Family Reunion Dress' pattern on their blog I knew it would be perfect - we were due to go to my aunty and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary party, Munchkin needed a frock, and that it was such an appropriately named pattern was obviously a sign that should buy it :) I liked the look of the pin tucks, the button-up back and the yoke.

But horror of horrors, my favourite stockist of pretty patterns and desirable fabrics (M is for Make, obviously :) did not stock it! With a bit of a persuasive email to Kate I managed to have the pattern land on my doormat a few weeks later. There was about a month before the party, so I had plenty of time. I decided to make up a muslin to make sure everything fitted and to practice the pintucking, and so I traced off the pattern pieces and cut them out of some cheap cotton I had in my stash.

And then I found out I was pregnant. Hurray! And then about a week later the morning sickness kicked in. My sewing mojo went out the window. I was in bed before 9pm most nights. If I wasn't in bed I was busy eating savoury snacks to try and keep the nausea at bay.  I couldn't focus on any particular task for more than 10 minutes without needing a lie down on the sofa. Progress ground to a halt. The forlorn pieces of cheap cotton started to gather dust on the sideboard.

Fast forward to a week before the party, and I knew I had to get my skates on or accept defeat and pop in to M&S to buy a back-up. So I took a deep breath, ate a bag of japanese rice crackers and started to sew.

As I was so short for time I had abandoned my muslin, but I was still worried about sewing the pintucks, as I hadn't done any before. Before I made a start on the 'proper' dress, I took my dusty muslin pieces and transferred the pattern markings on the front and back, and then had a pintuck practice run. This was most helpful, and meant I felt more confident when I sewed them on the final dress. If you're not quite sure about getting them right, I'd recommend it. One of the things I loved about the pattern was the detailed instructions, and the steps on pintucks are no exception. There are a couple of handy hints on getting a neat finish, and there's a glossary as part of the instructions if you don't understand what any of the terms mean.

I plodded along through the rest of the pattern, stopping for savoury snack breaks and naps where appropriate. Everything is explained along the way, and the diagrams that accompany the instructions are very clear. I often struggle with commercial patterns from the big four as there aren't enough pictures for me, but this was perfect. I think the whole thing took me 3 or 4 evenings to complete, although I really wasn't at my best and I think under normal circumstances it would have taken 2. The trickiest thing about the whole process was finding buttons that matched my fabric, and I ended up sewing them on the dress in the car on the way to the party!

The fabric I used was a quilting weight cotton, and I think it was ideal for the style of dress. Anything heavier and you wouldn't get the crispness of the pintucks - although a babycord might work. It would be perfect in chambray as well, and you could use scraps of a contrasting fabric for the neck facing and the button tab, and maybe a bit of applique on the body of the dress. You can sew the pattern in a blouse length as well, which is what I'm planning to do with another pretty print that I've found, once the morning / afternoon / evening sickness abates and I can stay up past 8pm.

In conclusion, it was a lovely pattern to sew. Even down to the paper that the pattern is printed on, it oozes quality. The fit was perfect - my daughter has not long turned three, and her measurements matched the pattern envelope exactly for size 3T. The design and sewing techniques that are used produce a very high quality dress, and one that I am sure I'll be passing down to Munchkin's little cousins (and maybe even a future sister?).

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Thanks Emily and congratulations - I hope the morning sickness has eased by now! Keep your feet up,

Kate
x

Pattern cutting fatigue...

I have pattern cutting fatigue. Normally the idea of a weekend where I cram every spare moment with sewing would be a heavenly prospect, but as you can see from the many screwed up pieces of paper above, this has not been the case.

Last week I posted a picture of the first draft of my dress. It was way too big and the flare of the dress took out any shaping on the top half that couldn't be pulled in by a belt in the way I had hoped. I drew up a new pattern which included a slightly lower neckline, lower armholes (as they were just a bit too high) and nipped it in at the waist going down to a much less flared skirt. It took me a long time to do this, drafting the pattern takes up space and needs concentration, both hard with 2 children around. I found my brain could only concentrate on what I was doing for an hour at a go before getting completely befuddled and I ended up drawing lines in the wrong place. When it came to making up the dress, sewing curved necklines is really hard, especially with a gather in, and it took ages.

The new dress was a much better fit, the top tighter, the belt gathered it in nicely around the waist, and the arms were more comfortable, but the top was also now too low and didn't look quite right.

So redraft number 3 and I think I am there. I think you need to be quite a perfectionist when drafting a pattern. Its too easy to have pieces not quite matching up at the arm, shoulder or hem. The result wouldn't be such a good fit, so I was extra careful this last time (and it will be the last time as I don't have the will to do another version) and measured up so that everything matched up (hopefully) perfectly.

Despite the many frustrations, in the back of my mind, I think this will be a really useful pattern, in addition to the dress, I am imagining a shorter version like a tunic, and I could add patch pockets to the front. I am hoping all my hard work will be worth it in the end, but for now it's a good feeling to pack it all away finished and take a breather...