First Dress of 2016 – Simplicity 1419

Can you believe it’s nearly 60 degrees and this is still February? The weather’s been doing this flip flop where it is in the  high 50’s to 60’s one week then in the low 40’s the next. Well that’s Oklahoma weather for you, always changing.

Still I’m loving the warm weather and it’s got me in a springtime sewing type of mood. Since I haven’t had time to sew since we’ve moved to our new apartment this past month, I figured I’d get a head start on my spring wardrobe.

Fabric and Pattern

Sometimes a project starts with a pattern, sometimes with the fabric. This time was definitely a fabric time. I was in the midst of getting my sewing room back together and going through my fabric when I came across this lovely roll of lightweight fleece.

This particular fleece had little white polka dots on the baby blue background and these fun yellow and orange bouquets all around it. There is even a very subtle hint of pink in the flowers.

I just loved the vintage look of fabric and knew that this would be my first dress of 2016. The only question was what pattern to make.

After digging through my 4 file cabinets and 4 totes of patterns (yes, I know I have a lot of patterns), I ultimately decided to go with Simplicity Lisette 1419 pattern. I loved the vintage inspired look of the pattern. It reminded me of something I’d seen on Modcloth.

Alterations

While I loved the dress as is there were a few Alterations I made to the pattern. First and foremost I had to grade the bodice to accommodate my larger waist size.

Since my fabric was a little thin I decided to make a full bodice lining instead of using facing. Basically I just made the bodice a second time out of the lining. I used a silky /chiffon type fabric from my stash.

I’m not sure why but I decided to fuse my lining to the bodice so it wouldn’t ride up. I should have just hemmed it and left it, but no I fused it. I turned the bottom hem of the lining ½ inch instead of the ⅝ inch and used heat-bond tape to keep in place.

Then on the outside I stitched in the ditch of the seam between the bodice and skirt. This was to ensure that my lining was held in place.

I also decided not to add the keyhole to the front bodice. I didn’t’ think that it went with this fabric. Unfortunately I forgot to modify the collar to accommodate the missing keyhole. To fix this I moved the collar closer to the center till the ends matched up in the front. This should have worked, but I forgot about seam allowance, so there is still a slight gap between the collar piece. It’s not bad, but it could have been better.

Overall Fit

While most of the dress fits okay, the arm holes are too small. I don’t know if it’s the pull of the lining or what?

Unfortunately, because I fused the lining and bodice together I can’t really get to the inside to make adjustments. It’s the only downside to the whole dress. I feel like I only need to loosen it a little and it would be perfect, but I’m not sure how.

While the dress is wearable, the armhole makes it uncomfortable. Thus, I might just attempt to unstitch the armholes and see what happens.

Other than that I love this dress and it works nicely with my blue cardigan as well as by it self. I can’t wait for more spring time weather to wear this dress.

**UPDATE**

In case you are wondering I went ahead and and cut into the armhole. As you can see in the picture above I cut about 1″ from the bottom of the under arm grading the curve back up. This small amount made all the difference. It’s not the best solution I’m sure but it did make the dress way more comfy to wear.

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