Garden Party Dress - Simplicity 1105

I've mentioned this pattern before, in fact if you've read my blog before you might have even seen this fabric before.  When my sister moved home my other sister organised a garden party and we were instructed to wear English Summer attire.  Mum offered to take me shopping to find something to wear but instead I turned to find a pattern.  I stumbled upon Simplicity 1105 online and liked in instantly.  The only problem was it wasn't released in Australia.  Sad face :(.  Thankfully having a sister living in the northern hemisphere paid off and I was able to get the patterns shipped to her and she bought them home for me.

For this pattern I cut a straight size 14.  My bust measurement was a size 16 and my waist goes up from there, but taking into account the ease in the pattern, which is quite generous (10 inches at the bust!) I knew a 14 would be fine.  The only minor adjustment I made to the pattern was to cut it with some extra length.  I did trim most of the extra length off but I am glad it is slightly longer than the original pattern.

When I first tried on this dress I was not convinced. It made me look frumpy and larger than I am, as you can see below.

Thankfully simply adding a belt was all this dress needed to make it something more flattering.

Much better!  I should make a belt out of the binding fabric but I haven't got around to it.  Maybe sometime soon.

As I mentioned in this post the floral fabric is a polyester from Spotlight.   I bought a really cheap satin for the binding and the ties at the back, while it looks okay it was a pretty bad decision in hindsight.  The quality was really bad and made it quite hard to work with.  Thankfully they still look good.  I think the ties might be my favourite bit.

The neckline on this dress is relatively high at the front, Higher than I would normally wear, thankfully it is not too high and is still comfortable to wear.  You can see the binding in this photo better than the others.  If I was to make this pattern again I think I would just use the lining to enclose the seams and not have to worry about the lining.

I lined the dress with white poplin, I chose poplin because I wanted something that was a bit more breathable but also offered a bit of support and body to the polyester in order to try and get the dress to stand out in its A line shape a bit more.  Thankfully it worked and also helped alleviate some of the static.  As I mentioned earlier I cut the dress slightly longer than the pattern to add on some extra length.  I did however cut the lining as per the pattern piece and was pleasantly surprised at the length I had expected it to be much shorter.  You can see the difference in this picture.  I finished both hems with a rolled hem, thankfully my skills seem to have improved since my last attempts.

Overall I am pretty happy with how this dress turned out and I am sure I will use the pattern again.  My sister has already put in an order for one.  Now I just need to take her fabric shopping!

Until next time,

Emma