Thursday 29 October 2015

My first Sew Over It Betty Dress - a review...



After another blogging drought, i'm back with a little review about my Sew Over It Betty Dress. If you haven't seen or used this pattern before, i'll give you some information on it first of all. It's a lovely 50's style dress with a boat neck, a v-shaped neckline at the back and a circular skirt. It has been on sale for quite a while now and is much loved in the world of blogging. 

I have had this pattern in my stash since Christmas as I got it as a gift. Because this pattern uses lots of fabric, I have never had enough in my stash to make it. In order to try this pattern out, I decided to make it up with a gathered skirt instead of a circular one as this is the part that eats up fabric. 

I decided to toile the bodice only and had to make some adjustments to the back seam to get it to fit - it needed to be taken in a bit to get a good fit. Other than that, the rest looked pretty good, so I decided to go for it. 

The fabric I chose is a Liberty Tana Lawn that I bought whilst in London on my holidays. I thought it would be a lovely lightweight summer dress (I know we're in late October now, but I did make this back in August! - Hong Kong summer lasts until November). 

The manufacture is easy. Just like any other sleeveless dress with invisible zip. I used a facing to finish the neckline, which was the provided finishing technique. I used my overlocker throughout for finishing seams. 

Now onto my final verdict; I was feeling confident about this make, however the finished product is not quite right. I think my laziness in not doing a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) for my E cup chest is really obvious in this dress. The visual for this means that the bust fits, but the darts do not allow the waist to be take in enough and this results in a loose waistline. I've not yet worn this dress, which is a great disappointment as the fabric is so nice! I think i need to take the bodice and skirt apart and try to take the waist in at the sides and darts in order to make it wearable. 

I have now learnt that I must do FBA's! This is the reason that dresses and blouses don't fit perfectly, so from now on I'm going to have a go at this. Hopefully no more disappointments for me!  

1 comment:

  1. Hey I recognise that fabric! I think the gathered skirt looks great on this bodice - good fabric saving pattern hack there!
    As for FBA's it's annoying to hae to do these (as you know I'm more of a SBA girl) but haven't really successfully managed to do one by myself yet.
    At least you know for next time.

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