Dress Up Party – Pattern Review – Simplicity 2444

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

Sara’s note: I want to sincerely apologize, as this post was supposed to go up yesterday. I have no excuse, but it is entirely my own fault! Here is Lara’s review as promised:

Simplicity 2444, a dress I’ve made twice and which I’ve loved in both versions.

It’s a pretty simple dress, in exactly the same style as I usually make, but I love the darts and the pleated skirt.

This first one is made using a beautiful quilting cotton, very sweetly called ‘hearty good wishes’.

I looked up the pattern before I made it and noticed that lots of people had issues with neckline gaping. After making a muslin (from cotton voile, which was awkwardly thin to work with!), I knew that I’d need to take an inch from the front. On the muslin I just put a dart in the CF so I could use it as a lining, but for the actual fabric, I followed this excellent and very simple tutorial to remove the gaping.

Dart on voile lining

I think the bodice front fits pretty well now.

I didn’t really consider the back gaping as I was planning to put buttons there so I thought I’d just chop off any excess at the CB. This didn’t quite work as I fully lined the bodice and then forgot about the back gaping when I put in the buttonholes.

I don’t think it matters tooooooo much, but the buttons do pull a little bit awkwardly now because they don’t line up perfectly.

The buttons I used are actually brightly patterned on the other side, but I wanted to go for the natural, muted vibe with the colour palette. I didn’t have enough to go down the length of the entire CB, so I just sewed the base of the button placket closed. It works for me.

When I tried on the dress towards the end, the finished length looked a bit dowdy and too long. I didn’t want to chop off the fabric in case I want it longer one day. I considered doing a deep hem, but in the end I decided to pleat the bottom of the skirt to make it look more vintage and more aesthetically pleasing. I love that feature now.

Version 2 of this dress is made using some Cath Kidston fabric I’ve had for ages. I can’t find this fabric on the site anymore, but I’m sure you can get some on auction sites, or there are plenty of other choices around. It’s actually more of a bright coral, not quite the fluorescent orange you see here, but it’s a hard colour to capture accurately.

This fabric is a particularly stiff cotton, which holds the skirt shape beautifully and gives the dress a nice structure rather than just being a floaty summer dress. Although, it does puff out sometimes and needs a bit of manhandling to squash back into place. I’m sure it will be controlled by a few washes!

I did a little bit more fitting on this version. Just like version 1, I took out some of the gaping in the front neckline, but I also did the same on the back. I’m soooo pleased with the fit now! I also shortened the bodice by 3/4 inch so it sits perfectly on my natural waist. This is a pretty standard alteration for me now.

I had to redraw the neckline slightly. When I first tried the bodice on, it was a bit high, so I drew dots while I was wearing it and then folded right down the centre front and used my french curve to get a nice line. Cutting on the fold meant that it’s perfectly symmetrical, and marking while I was wearing it, means it hits exactly where I wanted it to.

The skirt length on this is actually a bit longer than I usually wear, but I think that works quite well with the high neck and simple silhouette. I also added pockets. I’m not usually fussed about pockets in a skirt – I never have anything to put in them, but I had the perfect sized scraps to cut them out from! I have to say that this skirt pattern has great pockets. A good size and they start at a great height.

I used a vintage zip in the centre back, but it wasn’t quite long enough. I wasn’t going to go out and buy a new one. This one matched too perfectly, so I pretended that I was always planning for a keyhole opening at the back, and went with that. I love the black and white button at the top. I’ve got quite a few of these that I’ve been saving for ‘something special’, but I realised that I was never using them that way, so I’ve decide to start putting my favourite pieces to use asap!

I didn’t want to line such a thick fabric, so I finished the edges with bias binding and overlocked the inside seams. I think it actually looks super neat.

Overall, I think that this is a great pattern. It runs true to size – I was able to cut a size 10 for version 2 and for the button back version, I just cut a size 12 to allow for more overlap at the centre back. I’m not sure if that’s an acceptable way to do this, but it worked for me 🙂