Tuesday, September 9, 2008

New Look 6429 Dress

Pattern Description: Misses' surplice dress with faux wrap front and sleeve, collar and belt variations. The bodice comes to a point at the small of the back. I did short sleeves, no collar, no belt.

Pattern Sizing:8 to 18. I made a size 12 but could have probably cut a 10; this dress runs big.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow?Yes. I actually read the instructions first this time because there is nothing I hate more than picking stitches out of knit and I didn't want to mess up. The instructions were very clear.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? There are 42 previous reviews of this pattern, and everyone, no matter what their figure, looks great in this dress. How can this not be a winner? It's comfortable, it's flattering, the mock wrap in the front covers tummy issues, and the dress gives me the illusion of having more of a waist than I do. No dislikes at all.

Fabric Used: Animal print-ish (the addition of green to an animal print is enough to qualify it as "ish" for me) jersey from Metro Textiles on my recent visit with Ladybirdlove and Carolyn. Loved the fabric on sight, but had no idea what I was going to do with it. The fabric instructed me to make this dress.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: None on this first attempt. Next time I'll raise the neckline by just a bit - I've got a bit more cleavage at work today than I would normally, but I also invested in a decent new bra, so at least the girls are elevated for the display. I also might take the side seams in a little more. This is a pretty snug knit, but I could see where in a slightly more flexible fabric the dress would be a little loose. One other change I'll make next time is to lengthen the facings about an inch, because for some reason or other when I sewed them to the fronts, the facings ended up shorter. Don't know how that happened but since it's caught in the side seams it doesn't really matter anyway.

This dress has been sitting on the table in my workroom for the better part of 3 weeks now (worked on it between pieces of my min-wardrobe), and I realized last night that all I needed to do to finish it was to hem the sleeves. So why had I not gotten around to that? 5 minutes later and I had a new dress to wear to work today.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?Absolutely. There's a 3/4 sleeve black version of this dress in my near future, as well a sleeveless one for next summer when I come across the right fabric. It didn't take long to make, discounting my laziness in finishing the sleeve hems, so with the right motivation this would only take an evening or two. The hardest part was vacuuming the living room carpet so I had enough room to spread out the fabric and cut out the bigger pieces.

Conclusion: This dress would fit under so many categories -: wardrobe builder, highly recommended, great for beginners - it was hard to pick one. Great dress.

11 comments:

cidell said...

Wowsah! That is SOME dress. Am I the last person in the sewing world to make it?? You look amazing.

laura said...

That is one great dress, I believe I'll see if I can find that pattern.

Unknown said...

That dress turned out fabulous! Love the animal-ish print. I think I just bought that pattern - guess it's time to give it a try. g

Vicki said...

You do look great and I have also not made this! I really think I must.

Lisette M said...

Great dress! I made it and it is one of my favorites.

Little Hunting Creek said...

I love animal-ish prints! It looks great on you. Cidell's not the last person to make one - I haven't made one yet either. But now I will :)

Cathy said...

It looks great on you Karen! This on my list to do for PR's pattern stash contest. Good to know I'm the only lolly-gagger.

kasizzle said...

This looks great on you! I LOVE the fabric.
I made this pattern last year and it didn't look good on me at all. I'm going to have to pull it out and figure out where I went wrong.

-E said...

ooooo baby!

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

That is fantastic! And nice cleavage. `-)

Kat said...

That is a BEAUTIFUL dress on you, Karen! The print is fab and the cleavage factor is the first thing I noticed LOL (DH would LOVE that ;) ). That's my kind of dress.