Dress Up Party – Pattern Review – Christine Haynes Emery Dress

This post is part of Dress Up Party. For contest rules, full details, and schedule, please click here!
Today’s post is from Sandi of Crafty Planner.

When Sara asked me to be a part of the Dress Up Party, two thoughts immediately came to mind.

1) Wow! Yes! Of course, yes!

2) Oh man! What am I going to make?

Ever since I interviewed Christine Haynes for my podcast, I have wanted to try one of her patterns. Ultimately, I chose the Emery Dress. The fact there was a sew along already done helped seal the deal. I am still a novice garment sewer so I wanted as much support as possible.

From my past garment sewing experiences, I knew I needed to do a sleeve adjustment because I have chubby upper arms. I used this tutorial. The sleeve adjustment meant I needed to add additional armhole space. Based on everything I had read, I also assumed I needed a full bust adjustment because I’m a F cup and have a difference of 2 inches between my high and full bust adjustments. Luckily, there is a full bust adjustment tutorial for the Emery Dress. I made both adjustments and added width to the skirt bodice to match my hip measurements.

There is a discount fabric swap meet by my house so I picked up some chambray for $2 a yard. The hand is fantastic and the color stayed the same, even after the washes. I would show you my first muslin but I look like a poorly dressed nun. At least that is how my friend, Sarah, described me. She is my garment sewing life line!

So onto the second muslin…

Since I added width to my arm holes to accommodate my sleeve adjustment, I didn’t need to do a full bust adjustment after all. I did need to adjust the placement of my darts. I also needed to remove fabric from my back bodice to compensate for the addition to the arm holes.

Based on advice from Sarah, my shoulder seam was adjusted at an angle to take in extra neckline. I owe my husband for his pinning assistance.

For the first muslin, I added several inches to my skirt front and back because my measurements were larger than the largest size. However, the gathering really allowed me to stick with the largest size so I removed my added width for the second muslin.

Here is the final garment. (As a side note, I picked a windy and sunny day to take pictures. I am not brilliant. So this is what I look like when I squint!)

“Oh, sun, you blind me!”

And the back (also known as the first time Sandi figured out how to sew an invisible zipper…without an invisible zipper foot!)

This pattern was really easy to follow and is appropriately rated for an intermediate sewer. As with any garment, you have to adjust for your body and I learned a lot about fit.

Thank you, Sara. I have a feeling I will be making more Emery Dresses in the future along with more garments.