Floral Simplicity

Simplicity 1880 is one of those "magic" patterns - I've seen it around on so many blogs (just check out this beautiful goldfish shirtdress by Gemma!) and there are none or very few complaints about it. It seems to fit people of all sizes and shapes. It seems to look pretty good on everyone too! So when there was a pattern sale on Pattern Postie I had to buy it! Spoiler alert: It was worth it!

There are two bodice variations - shirt dress or faux wrap bodice and three sleeve variations. In between the you can make several different dresses! There is nothing tricky in the construction of this dress and it was easy to put it all together. I cut size that corresponded with my measurements although deep down I knew I should have done full bust adjustment. I guess I was a bit lazy. Of course after trying my half-finished dress I had to add darts because there was lots of gaping in the armhole. When I make this dress again I will go down 1-2 sizes and just do a proper FBA. There is a tiny bit of gaping  along the wrap edges but not enough to make me worry about showing more than I want to. 

Surprisingly it still took me 4 weekends to finish it! But it has nothing to do with the dress but with my lack of time. With the bodice and skirt in place the only thing I had to do was to hem it and attach sleeves. I wasn't sure which sleeve variation I wanted so I asked for opinions on Instagram. People mostly voted for black cap sleeves. Next weekend my boyfriend had his birthday party and I only had 30 min to do sewing - just enough for hemming sleeves I thought... I messed up my rolled hem so I spent most of my half an hour unpicking stitches. Next chance I had to work on the dress I managed to hem my dress nicely and set one of the sleeves in with no problems. But the second sleeve was a naughty one. There was puckering everywhere! I tried all the tricks I knew and some I didn't but nothing worked. So I gave up. Finally last weekend I sewn the sleeve in and made a belt. I also took some photos even though the weather certainly wasn't suitable to be outside in this dress ;) 

The floral fabric is cotton sateen from Spotlight and it's one of the first fabrics I bought! It was clearance fabric and it didn't cost more that $5 a meter. I used black cotton sateen for back and front yokes - it was a leftover piece from a dress that sits in my one-day-I'll-finish-it pile. I think it worked well. 

Now I just need to wait for spring - it's just 2 months away! Or make some black warm cardigans so I can enjoy my dress right away ;)

PS. I forgot to mention that I used a piece of ribbon to make a label to add extra interest.