OOTD/Made by Me File: Rosalyn's Easter. New Look 6262 and New Look 6335.

Day: Sunday, April 5, 2015.

Where:  Easter services and Easter lunch/supper.

Ease of Wear: (4.25 of 5 stars--5 being the most easy to wear.)  I had constructed the dress myself with my sizing in mind, so I was very comfortable.  The only thing that bugged a bit was the underarm portion, which makes me fear that I have even more of a square shoulder adjustment to do the next time I sew up this pattern.  (I don't have a lot of fluff up top, but my shoulders go up at the end instead of sloping down, and since the patterns are all drafted for a much more sloped shoulder than I have, I always have to do a "square shoulder adjustment."  I thought I had done enough of one here, but I must need another 1/8 to 1/4 inch to be truly comfortable.)

Outfit Details:  Dress, made from New Look 6262; Shoes, Target; Tilly Cardigan, J. Crew (available here); Necklace, J. Crew.

Anecdote of the Day:  So in Mississippi and apparently this part of Indiana, people say supper instead of lunch.  Or is it dinner at lunch and supper is what I call dinner?  I don't know, lol.  Here in Northern Virginia, and maybe the rest of the state, supper is dinner, if we say supper at all.  I find it all so fascinating. 

I say yard sale instead of garage sale and every big road (interstates, freeways, etc.) are highways.  Other states round here do the same, but you go further west/north and the differences in terms are more pronounced.  Speaking of pronounced, if you really want to have some fun, ask a Virginian to pronounce either Fauquier county or Norfolk.  Trust me.

Do you have any local idioms that are a dead giveaway you are from somewhere? 

New Look 6262.  Without fail, I knew that I would likely be making the size 10 at the top bit (hey my absent flat-chested self), but because of the smaller waist measurement on the tissue, I decided it would be smart if I made the rest of the dress below the bust in a size 12.  It worked out great, and though I could have maybe squeezed into the 10 at the waist (the hips would have been fine, obviously), the 12 gave me a lovely amount of ease.

I specifically chose the fabrics because I really wanted to make the Rosalyn Dress from Boden since the debacle with my preview orders about two months back.  I didn't ever intend for this to be my Easter dress, but I was so fired up about the way Boden handled processing the credit that I CANCELED my order and got in my head that I could make something just as great as what I canceled.  The top bit is made from a cotton lace broderie fabric I bought from Fabric Mart last year, and the bottom is a home decor print from Waverly (Blossom Boutique Twill Aurora) I knew would look nice with the lace. 

I love how many options New Look 6262 gave me in terms of necklines, sleeves, etc.  I chose the cap sleeve with the scoopneck option, and made sure to follow the instructions for the lace version at least in the bodice.  It asked me to underline versus line my bodice, and so that is what I did.  It did feel a bit odd to underline (I used a stretchy cotton poplin fabric for that) and then use a facing, but the result was great, so I am not questioning it.  I clearly did not need to underline the skirt, but I did end up adding pockets, which I grabbed from Butterick 5211 (they were absolutely perfect as is).

Back view.  I didn't have any long white invisible zips at the house, but because they are invisible, except for the top pull, I just used a baby blue that matched the skirt perfectly.  It is fine!

The Rosalyn dress doesn't have a back zip and since I prefer back to side zips, AND I prefer this floral to the one they have on theirs, I am claiming sewing success on this dress.  I love it way more than the Rosalyn.  Rare for me to say this, but Dina 1--Boden 0.

Rosalyn Dress.  Still a very pretty dress, just not for me.  I think had all of the credit processing been more normal (or at least more timely in dropping the extra charges placed on my account), I would have gone with this one and not even been tempted to sew my own.  Ultimately I was glad I did since I also had enough fabric left over for my daughter's Easter dress, too.  If you do like this dress, it is on sale right now, for 20% off.

For CW's matching dress (which Boden has no version of for their mini line) I used New Look 6335 for sleeves and skirt, while rest is Simplicity 1211.  Since she is a wee girl with few curves, she is super easy to fit (and that makes this super easy to sew, too), but I did decide to make the skirt from one long rectangle rather than three rectangles (one for the front piece and two for the back pieces with a zip in the middle).  This means that her skirt has no side seams but does have a back seam that meets up with the middle back seam of the bodice.  I could have used a zip that went all the way down into her skirt, but again, girl with no curves, so I just added a small 7 inch zip at the top of the bodice and called it a day.  If she does get big enough that I need to add a longer zip, I have the infrastructure in place to do so.  I don't see any big difference between her skirt fullness and the one on the New Look 6335 package.  Hers is plenty full enough but uses far less fabric.  I tell you those girls dresses require SO much skirt fabric.  Ridiculous.  This is like the tenth time I have chosen not to use the full amount because I refuse to waste fabric if the end result will only look marginally different.

I do want to mention two things--

1. Gathering has always been a bit of a bear for me.  This time I did the proper three rows of gathering on the longest stitch length and then pulled them up to the length needed to match the bodice pieces.  In order to make sure the gathers didn't get folded down and smooshed by the presser foot, I made the *bold,* lol, decision to decrease my foot pressure on my machine.  Why in the world I hadn't done that before is beyond me, but wow, what a difference.  I still had to take it nice and slow and maneuver the gathered bits properly so they wouldn't get misshapen by the machine and the foot, but the gathers lie nice and prettily rather than skewing to one side as they want to do if I leave the presser foot pressure at the higher amount.  (They skew towards the opposite side that the presser foot is approaching from, so if the presser foot comes from the left on the wrong side, the gathers all skew to the right on the front, probably barely noticeable, but it drives me batty.)

2. I have laundered these dresses on delicate, in a cold wash, and hung them to dry.  They came out great, even though the skirt fabric recommends dry cleaning.  Just a bit of a "go on and do it" for those of you wondering if you should.  ;-)

I wrote up a pattern review on my dress here at Pattern Review.  It has a bit more of the technical dealings for those of you that care.

I will write up the pattern review for CW's dress soon.  When I do that I will update this blog post.

Okay, you all have a great night!!!