Sew Over It Elsie Dress

The Elsie Dress has featured as a Sew Over It class for a while now so I was thrilled to see it being released as a paper sewing pattern. It features a ‘curved v-neckline, princess seams and dramatic pleats’ a.k.a everything I LOVE in a dress. This pattern didn't disappoint - it's gorgeous! 

The skirt pieces on this pattern are so wide that it only fits onto 140cm fabric. Luckily I already had some ‘Dotty Fleur’ fabric from Higgs and Higgs in my stash which was 160cm wide and, at only £7.99 a metre, a total bargain. I've included a link here:
http://www.higgsandhiggs.com/petit-jardin-dotty-fleur-mint.html 

To start with I compared the SOI it princess seam pieces to my block pieces to check how the fit would work for me. I ended up tracing the neckline from the bodice front onto my block to ensure the best fit as I was slightly worried that my bra straps would show would the wide neck. I lengthen the skirt by 2 inches to give myself a little extra to play around with once the dress was finished. As I was making this dress for a specific event (a wedding) I knew that I wanted my upper arms covered (old tattoos!), fortunately my sleeve block fitted into the armscye so I could use that. 

I lined the bodice in plain cotton lawn and slipstitched it at the waist seam. For the wedding, I wore a big petticoat under the dress, but I’d like to add a cotton skirt lining to this dress, I'll probably unpick the slipstitching and add an a-line skirt piece to the bodice lining.  
Construction wise this was a fairly straight forward sew, I completed the bodice then pinned all the pleats in place and to check that they would line up with the princess seams. I decided to hem the skirt with white satin bias binding to help keep its shape as my fabric wasn’t quite as heavy as the pattern suggested. When I measured the hem I needed 4.5m of bias binding – that’s A LOT of hem! You can see how wide the skirt is in this photo! 

I really love this dress. The skirt pieces hang beautifully and I felt like swishing all day (in fact there was a lot of twirling on the dance floor). This dress is so versatile as I can see how different if would look if I made a version using brocade or taffeta. 

I loved wearing this dress and felt really comfortable all day long. I also made a little matching jacket (the wedding was in Ireland so I was worried I might get a little chilly!). I used the Tamarack Jacket pattern which I'd previously cropped. I had some blue chambray in my stash and lined the jacket in the leftover fabric from the dress. 

The wedding was at Clontarf Castle Hotel in Dublin and we had fun messing around with these thrones!

I’ve already got my next version of the Elsie Dress cut and ready to sew in this gorgeous blue stretch cotton. I took full advantage of an empty Boardroom at work and cut this dress at lunchtime. As you can see, the pieces really are huge!

This pattern really does make the perfect party dress - I 'd definitely recommend it!

Happy sewing, Hannah x