Emery Dress - #selfishsewingweek

This is rather unlike me to post each day, but seeing as I have committed myself to the rather overambitious task of sewing every day this week I thought I might as well keep you informed of what has been flying off my sewing machine!

First up.......

My very first Emery Dress by Christine Haynes. 

I loved this pattern and as soon as I saw it, I added it to my Christmas list. The shape is very me, fitted bodice and a full skirt. In truth it is not too dissimilar to the dress patterns I had drafted for myself in the past, but this has sleeves... So it was the sleeves that swayed me, there you have it! 

As part of Selfish Sewing Week I decided to give this pattern a go. When I started to stitch up this dress I went from, oh no, this is going to be way too small, to ooh this looks like it will be a good fit to finally.... It's huge on me. So I set to altering the bodice in hope of a better fit and I think I am almost there! In the bodice pattern my measurements ranged from a 14 - 18! Crazy. In truth I should have known better and just done an FBA but sometimes I like to just test the pattern out and see how it fits straight out of the packet. 

So here is my Emery in a lovely vintage Peter Pan print fabric donated to me by my Aunty. 

I had a lot of crazy fit issues on this bodice and have ended up adding a couple of neck darts just to salvage the dress. I had worked too hard and loved the fabric, so I wanted to make it a wearable toile. 

The bodice fit perfectly across the bust but was huge at the waist, so I increased the dart size there. The neck was huge, like 4cm worth of gape down the front, so in this version I added a couple of neck darts there, but on the pattern I have taken the excess out so, hopefully that will be much better next time round. 

The skirt was a dream so twirly!! And I now want to add pockets into every dress I make, the are just so perfect. I also chopped the bodice down by 2cm as I prefer things to land a little higher than my waist. 

I didn't have a long enough zip to make this dress... Why didn't I check that first?! 

So I improvised a little and did a zip with three ruloux loops and buttons at the top to finish it off. 

This dress calls for a lining, but as this was just intended as my toile, I just drafted a facing and went with that for this version, but next time round I will have the right length zip, and not be lazy and do the proper lining!

I love this dress pattern though, and hopefully with all the alterations now traced onto my pattern pieces, next time around shouldn't be as difficult. 

Thanks for stopping by again, I hope you are enjoying #selfishsewingweek as much as I am!!

~HJF~