About two dresses - New Look 6002 & Simplicity 2444

It seems I owe my blog a few photos of some of the sewing projects I've been working on lately. I've actually been flat out sewing these past few weeks, making items for my sister and her little one, and for my neighbour who's just had a baby. I've also been sewing for me - are you surprised???

Last Friday's wedding provided me with a great opportunity to make a frock suitable for a formal occasion. When I first saw New Look 6002, I fell in love. I was particularly sold on bodice A, the square neck one. It just looks so cute on the pattern envelop. So I purchased some satin back shantung on sale and picked some Anna Maria Horner voile left in my stash for the middle band. Luckily, before I cut the dress, silk dupion went on super sale at Spotlight, so I snapped it up to make this frock.

Here is the dress so far. It is cute and I do like it, but after getting to this stage in construction, I decided the design wasn't for me. There is currently no zipper in the back of the frock and the hem is pinned. I guess this is part of the problem with making clothes, you don't get to try on new styles before making them.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get over the feeling that it looked a little too '90's formal wear'. Two of my friends disagree with this perception of mine, but I still couldn't get over it.

Pattern review to this stage: The dress came together really well, but there was a lot of playing around with the tucks on the bust to get them to sit right and not bubble. I think proper darts may have helped this. I also turned the pleats on the skirt, pointing them out rather than in as they sat better/flatter that way.

So, in the week prior to the wedding I decided I needed a new dress and looked to Simplicity 2444, which has been on my to do list for a while now. I made this dress out of a lovely, drapey poly rayon blend fabric with a subtle asterisk '*' style design on it.

I love this dress. It's comfortably and while it is a little demure, it is still stylish. Please excuse the bad photos, it's a bit gloomy in Sydney today.

Now a few reviews of this pattern noted that the top of the bodice was quite generous and as I was not making sleeves to pull this out, I made a muslin to survey the problem area. From this, I was able to pinch out the excess from this region and when I cut the garment, I re-aligned the centre fold of the bodice. This meant there was a little extra fabric toward the bottom of the bodice, but as I normally grade up the waist of dresses, it was actually helpful.

As you can see from the muslin, I also slightly reduce the neck and arms, as I was really concerned about the wedding falling on one of the really hot, humid days that we've been having here in Sydney and I thought this might help. Thankfully, it wasn't as warm as I thought it would be.

I'm actually really quite happy with this dress and think I will wear it again. The fabric is so lovely and I could definitely wear this to work, if I had a proper job - ha!

Pattern Review available here.