dress – A Notion to Sew

Baby it’s cold outside! Time for sweater dresses. This is one of the new Fall 2020 releases from New Look patterns. It features dropped shoulders and ribbed cuffs on the sleeves. There are two views from which to choose: View A – short stand up neck and patch pockets OR View B – cowl neck and side seam pockets. I chose to sew View A.

The neckline on my dress doesn’t stand up as straight as the pattern photo shows, but that is because my fabric has a substantial drape. If I were to sew this again with this same fabric, I would interface the neck piece so it would have more stability. That said, it still looks good and does not affect the wearability of the dress.

The neckline from View A allows for bold jewelry or scarves to be added without interfering with your accessories:

I chose the size 16, but I wish I would have gone with the 14. My dress fits great in the hips, but it is big in the bust/armhole area. If I sew another dress from this pattern, I will go down a size in the shoulder and bust area and just grade up a size toward the hips. I will also add bust darts, which would give the upper body some nice shaping.

The fabric is a boucle sweater knit from Stylemaker Fabrics (from last season).

All in all, I consider this a successful make and I plan to wear it throughout the winter.

If you are interested, I posted a video on my YT channel:

I would love to hear your thoughts on sewing with sweater knits. Please leave a comment.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Hello Sewers! Here is a look at my muslin-testing process to bring me to the point of stitching up my version of the Cielo Dress.

I used a cotton/linen blend fabric from Hobby Lobby to make my muslins. I used the same fabric to make two muslins. For the first one I sewed a size 12 straight from the envelope with no adjustments and no design changes. On the second muslin I used my Silhouette Pattern Armhole Templates to change up the fit in the armhole area. Take a look at my video at the end of this post to see which version I prefer. 🙂

When I stitched the sleeves to the armholes (both versions), I used the Silhouette Patterns method of stitching with the sleeve on the bottom and the bodice on the top, which is opposite of how I was taught to insert sleeves. Sewing with the sleeve on the bottom makes it so I don’t have to stitch two rows of basting stitches and pull up the threads to fit the sleeve into the armhole area. It just naturally eases into the area beautifully.

*If you are inserting your sleeve with this method, be certain to check underneath periodically to make certain you are not getting any of the actual sleeve caught up in the seam.*

Sewing with my left hand between the bodice and the sleeve helps me feel any wrinkles or rogue fabric that might be working its way into the seam

A unique dart in this dress is the bust dart that comes in from the armhole. I’ve never seen a pattern with a dart placed at that position.

I like the design details such as the sewn down cuff and the insert in the back yoke area.

The pattern piece for the bottom half of the dress and the in-seam pockets is rather odd shaped. I have to be honest, even after reading the instructions, I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to go together!

Per the pattern instruction, I marked three sewing lines on my pattern piece (you can see them in white). I sewed the three lines with the pattern piece right side together with the bodice pattern piece. Then the fabric above those lines is folded down (so it is right side up) over those two U-shaped portions of the pattern (those are the pockets). The sewn lines form the front seam and where it is not sewn – those are the openings to the pockets. Clever..

I used my serger to sew this dress together, so all the seams are nicely finished.

Here is a video review of my Cielo Top & Dress:

Thank you for stopping by today, I appreciate the time you take to read my blog posts.

Tag: dress

New Look #6683 – Sweater Dress

Closet Case Patterns Cielo Top & Dress