This cute dress has princess seams, a v-shaped raglan neckline, and an upside down v-shaped insert at the waist.
Lekala patterns are custom printed to your measurements. Usually the result is a really nice fitting garment. But, it’s not a foolproof system. Sometimes the designs are intentionally snug – way to snug for my taste and comfort. and sometimes I still need to fba. This dress is one that fit fine with very little tweaking.
I made this dress before from a boucle. The boucle v stretched out of shape, as did the bias edges where the v is inserted. Last time it was a nightmarish mess. I ended up removing the insert, then cutting, interfacing and installing a new one. This time, I interfaced a chunk of fabric before cutting out the v, and I reinforced the bias edges with fusible interfacing to prevent stretching.
I used a polyester pear print fabric, I think it came from Etsy. I accented the v neck and insert with black lace, and added a flounce edged in black lace. I added the flounce because I wanted a little flare at the bottom, but was afraid to build that fullness into the skirt pieces themselves. I didn’t want an obvious ruffle, either. So the easy solution was a flounce. I stole the flounce piece from another skirt pattern (Simplicity or McCalls, can’t remember which!).
The dress went together easily. Much much easier than my first make. I’m glad I learned from my mistake, and interfaced and reinforced the v insert and bias edges. That one simple step made everything go so smoothly!
I basted the lace along the bias edges, then sewed the seams with the machine. After a quick test fit, I tweaked a few vertical seams. Then, I finished all the seams with the serger. I based lace along the bottom of the sleeve and the hem. Then I resewed them with the serger. I turned the serged edge under, and topstitched. I finished the neckline last. I basted the lace to the edge, applied the facing, turned the facing under and topstitched.
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