A little break from the home tailored 3-piece suit and a quick post about the Zoe dress pattern from Simple Sew. The pattern came free with issue 1 of Sew Now magazine and my wife spotted its potential. Now to be honest, I don’t usually make many magazine patterns; don’t get me wrong but as a man, not many appeal to me! Occasionally my wife will spot a pattern and ask me to make it, so the Zoe dress it was.
The pattern is a really simple tunic style dress. No darts or fastenings, so a great beginners piece. The front and back panels are in two pieces with a centre seam. The addition of topstitching really makes it a feature. The dress has a nice patch pocket (or two, if you like), a large neck opening and dropped shoulder cuffs.
Making up
A while back I bought some 2-way stretch denim, although I’m not really sure what for! Perfect for the Zoe dress though, so I set to work. Cutting out was a breeze with so few pieces and the instructions where very clear. The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern was how ‘plain’ it looked. A tunic is pretty shapeless at the best of times but I wanted to make it stand out a little. So…
Deviating from the instructions, I made the pocket with a contrasting top facing (reversing the original fabric).
Quite often you see denim with orange topstitching so I kept that tradition, well nearly. I used a metallic orange thread that really stands out when the light catches it. The two-tone theme continued, after the pocket, with the cuffs and hem being finished in the same manner.
Overall a great, quick, pattern and certainly a nice break from the intensive suit making experience! The pattern is accurate and goes together well but just check the size of the finished neck and overall length: If you have narrow shoulders the neck might be a little too big and the dress is longer than the pattern picture suggests (I shortened my version)
Happy wife and nice dress.
Until next time….Happy Sewing!
Hi there, I’m new to this and doing fine up until the instructions to add the sleeve edge. Any tips? I can’t work out how to join it. Thanks