Sew Yourself Some Love-Drama Dress by George & Ginger Patterns
/Hi it’s Marnie and I’m excited to be a part of the Sew Yourself Some Love feature that we have this week at Pattern Revolution. Like many of you women I find that I put everyone else’s needs before my own pretty much all the time, including all my sewing plans. This year I have promised myself I will only take on so many orders, and limit who I test for so that I have time to create and sew things for myself. This week I’ve chosen to sew The Drama Dress from George and Ginger Co. It’s been on my to do list since it was released and it’s a great little dress.
The Drama Dress is packed full of options to suit everyone’s tastes. You can choose to either make the more fitted dress, or a swing dress, and there are four different necklines to mix and match as well. And its suitable for all weather conditions, with all sorts of sleeve options. I chose the fitted keyhole option and it was a very fast, straightforward sew.
A bit of background on me. I turn the big 40 this year which is quite confronting. I can honestly say that I have felt my age catch up with me over the past 12 months and with it, I’ve noticed a shift in my clothing preferences. I made my muslin of the dress initially and it turned out a bit short and tight for my liking - which is the very reason it pays to make a muslin first. Whilst this would not have bothered me in the slightest a few years ago, it makes me feel a little bit like mutton dressed as lamb at my age. Here’s my first dress and you can see that it is shorter and tighter than the one pictured above. Fortunately I have a couple of teenage nieces whom I’m pretty sure will happily take this home with them when they visit next, and fight over who is going to get to wear it.
My second dress I knew to add length so I added a couple of inches. I also added some ease to the shoulders and the top of the arms, as my shoulders are somewhat broad for my chest size, which is on the smaller side. I sized up through the body as well to make it a little looser and I’m much happier with the results. When I make my next one (because yes, there will be another) I will make a few more changes to get the fit even more spot on.
Now I didn’t point these fit things out to criticise the pattern designer. I cannot fault this pattern at all. It is brilliant and very cleverly designed to fit all of the options and different styles into one pattern and I love it. The instructions are great and I would highly recommend this pattern to anyone. I wanted to point out that sewing for your own body takes time and care to get the result you are after. It’s not as simple as print, cut and sew. Part of SYSL is about understanding where you need to alter things to get them to fit in a flattering way, and in my experience, it is something that I pretty much do every single time I sew for myself. I often see posts with frustrated women, who have sewn a garment that doesn’t fit well and feel self defeated and turn around and blame the pattern designer, when the majority of the time, it’s just a lack of understanding of the process of taking a pattern and making it work for you that is the issue, not the pattern. So if you are on a SYSL journey, please bear this in mind and try to ask for advice from people in a positive manner. Now back to the pattern….
The Keyhole neck is a fabulous addition to showcase the girls. It’s low enough to be a little bit sexy, but not so low that your friends husband will feel uncomfortable should you strike up a conversation while wearing the dress. I also shortened the sleeves on both to make them more cap like. I live in Sydney and we have had our hottest summer since 1894 this Summer. And yesterday, naturally the day I had to take photos was a record breaker and the hottest day ever recorded in the north west Sydney suburbs where I live, so as far as sleeves go - the shorter the better for me! Here’s a pic of my “my goodness how can it possibly be this hot” face whilst taking photos haha.
Anyway, thanks for reading along and be sure to follow along on our posts this week and hopefully get some inspiration to SYSL! Thanks for reading along,
Marnie
Lisa is sewing herself some love with the agility tank by 5 out of 4.