Hi Everyone!

Today’s post is about OOP Vogue 9186 by Kathryn Brenne, which is hot off the sewing machine. Let me rewind. Before my brain haemorrhage, I decided that I wanted to enter this year’s Tessuti Fabrics contest, which, for this year, is called Colour in Thirds. I have entered once before, in their Gridlock competition, and got a small runners up prize that year. But then this year I was in hospital, and couldn’t really sew for a while and time passed. This last week I thought: either I do this or I will regret it, so I got down to the business of sewing.

The idea behind the competition is that you have to buy whatever fabric Tessuti have chosen for that particular years contest, and make whatever you want using the fabric. I personally love seeing all the ways people get creative using the fabric that’s chosen. This year, the fabric on offer was a Japanese polyester crepe de chine, which was available in three colourways. I elected to get the indigo colourway. This is a high quality fabric, with a fabulous drape and movement as I hope is evident in these photographs, and I love the rich colour.

Now for the pattern. This is a different take on a pullover shirt dress. Designed to be loose fitting, it has a wide elastic in the front of the dress (sewn into a casing on the reverse of the dress), which provides some shaping, an asymmetric shaped hemline, dropped shoulders/ cut on cap sleeves and a hidden button placket. I found the instructions to be very good.

My only word of caution about this pattern is the sleeves. I had read other reviews about this pattern which warned the sleeves were too big for the armhole. I pinned the pattern piece for the sleeve into the armhole and estimated it to be approximately 1 inch bigger. So I decided to make the armhole 1 inch bigger, by deepening it 0.5 inch in the front and the back. This meant I didn’t have any issues setting the sleeve in. The sleeve doesn’t feel restrictive at all: it’s fine. But if I was ever going to make this pattern again I might have to look at redrafting the shoulder/ sleeve/ armhole area.

Some details:

Pattern Review

Pattern Description:

Very loose-fitting, pullover dress has mandarin collar, front band, partially elasticized waist with casing, side pocket, and shaped hemline, wrong side shows. Narrow hem. A: Cap sleeves. B:Long sleeves with placket and button cuffs.

I made view B.

Pattern Sizing:

XS – XXL (4 – 26).

I cut a size L through the bust, arms and shoulders and graded out to an XL over the hips.

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. The sleeve placket and hidden button placket were suprisingly simple compared to some other Vogue plackets I have sewn.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I like this is a different take on a shirt dress. It’s very different with some unique features. The only thing to be wary of is the sleeves as drafted are about 1 inch bigger than the armhole. I chose to make my armholes 1 inch deeper to account for this and the sleeves are fine, but if making again I might chose to do some redrafting.

Fabric Used:

A polyester crepe de chine.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

• Removed 2 inches from the sleeve length. I think I could even stand to remove another 1 inch? Maybe?
• Added 3 inches to the front length at the shortest point, tapering to 1.5 inches extra length at the longest point of the shaped hem.
• Deepened armholes by 1 inch. I deepened the front and back armholes by 0.5 inches to allow the sleeve to go in more easily.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

I don’t know if I need another one of these in my wardrobe, but I do recommend.

Conclusion:

If you want to stand out from the crowd this dress will definitely make heads turn.

Go check out all the other entries for the competition on Instagram using the hashtag #tessuticolorinthirds or find the Tessuti fabrics Pinterest board.

Until soon friends!