A couple of weeks ago I made up a toile from this pattern in a Peach jersey fabric for a friend. Last week I re-visited that friend and she tried on the toile. We were pleased to find that the toile was a good fit with just a very small tweak required over the hips.

We went ahead with making the dress in Pat’s chosen fabric which was a fine jersey print. The dress is to be worn to a ball later this month and would need to be full length i.e. View D from the pattern envelope illustration. Pat tried on the toile again and we measured how much extra fabric would be required to bring the hem to floor level. We added the appropriate amount to the pattern front and back skirt pieces. Pat also decided that she would like to have the sleeves as shown in views A and C.

Taking care to match the bold design at the centre front and back of the bodice and skirt pieces, we cut out the dress. The only other change that we made was to place the back bodice on the fold rather than have a seam. Pat had purchased a jersey needle and so with each of us pressing, pinning, stitching and pressing again the dress went together very quickly. The joy of sewing with jersey fabric! At the next fitting we discovered that the weight of the jersey was stretching the length of the skirt so a further 3 inches was removed and the hem pinned into place. The hems on the sleeves and the skirt of the dress were machined in place and after 4 hours of work we had a completed dress!

Pat was smiling and obviously delighted with her new dress. As we now knew how to perfect the fit of this dress for Pat, I offered to continue with the making of her original toile. I made the alteration to the side seams, added sleeves and machined up a narrow hem with jersey twin needles. Two dresses for the price of One!

Front                                                Back

I have been so impressed with how easily the design has come together and have now purchased my own copy of the pattern.

Watch this space for the next iteration of Simplicity 2580!