New Look 6067, Triple Dart African Print Dress
I am still looking for a pattern for my special mustard wool fabric--purchased two years ago now!--and decided to give New Look 6067 a try. The triple front darts add visual interest, and the slit neckline is a different look for me. I like it in the dress at left (it was on Piperlime but no longer available;
I did my usual litany of adjustments (broad back, small bust, etc.), including swayback adjustment. For dresses with a seam at natural waist, I split the swayback adjustment between the bodice and the skirt, as you can see. Unfortunately, I should also have shaped the center back seam and taken just a little more length out. Scroll up to the composite and you can see the swayback problem. Ick. I'll have to wear it with a belt every time.
Since this was somewhat of a wearable muslin, I considered making the front bodice as drafted, but in the end I just couldn't see that ending well at the bust, so I took small tucks out of each of the three darts for a small bust adjustment. The dress fits well across the bust, with comfortable ease but not Empty Sack Syndrome.
The way the dress is meant to be finished is actually quite nice. There is a separate front lining piece drafted with a normal waistline dart and facings. You are meant to stitch the facings to the lining (the facing needs to be fashion fabric because it will show a bit at the front neckline).
This is a cool cotton summer dress and I didn't need an extra layer, so I just did facings. To ensure plenty of facing coverage and avoid flipping and flapping, I lengthened and widened the front facing, as you can see at right.
As I suspected when cutting, the back neckline gaped a bit so I added 1 inch wide darts and modified the back facing pattern to suit.
I used the Sunny Gal technique for a neat-finished facing of sewing the interfacing and the facing right sides together along the outer edges, then flipping and fusing the interfacing. The saggy neckline on my Simplicity 2177 fresh on my mind, I interfaced the fashion fabric of the front neckline in addition to the facing.
A nun might find the front neckline as drafted just a tad prim, so I lowered the front neckline by 3/4 inch and lowered the slit opening by two full inches.
To get the slit to show, I gradually increased the seam allowance as I got closer to the neckline, adding 1/4 inch in total to each side (for a 1/2" opening). I might go in and take out even more, as the slit still doesn't show very well in wearing and it just looks like a very high-necked dress.
The cap sleeves are meant to be lined, with the lining used to finish the edge. Again, I didn't need lining so I hand rolled the sleeve hem. I serged the edge then folded the width of the serging to the inside and then the inside again. This is not an official blind stitch, but I took up only a few fibers of the outer fabric for each stitch. (click on the photo to enlarge and see the stitching)
I ended up cutting the skirt a bit short and therefore had only a 1/2" hem allowance to work with. Hem lace to the rescue! It's sewn with a machine blind stitch. I used maroon thread in the bobbin to coordinate with the lace and brown thread in the top thread to coordinate with the fabric so everything would look nice.
I lengthened the back slit for bike riding and it is very easy to bike in. I originally cut the skirt a little wider in an A line, but I mocked it up along the stitch lines for the drafted tulip shape, and with the slit I had plenty of leg movement.
I added side seam pockets, but side seam pockets are not a great match with a tulip-shaped skirt. I may have to just hand-stitch them closed as they gape a bit. Not enough to notice they're pockets, but just enough to make my hips look even wider.
I am very pleased with the way the print placement worked out for this fabric, one of the African prints my friend brought me back from Liberia. The only things I did in my cutting layout were to make sure I wouldn't have a floral bullseye over my bust and to minimize how much the baby poop light brown color was near my face (it's so close to mustard, but it's just not). The way the print flows so well from the bodice to skirt and the left and right front bodice is just a lucky coincidence!
The triple dart detail is rather lost in my print, but I do think it is cute. I'm not totally sold on this pattern for my special fabric though, *sigh.* I am the Goldilocks of darts--the Simplicity 2177 darts were too high, and these darts are just a little too low. I need to find a pattern that has the darts just right! (But has interesting design--not just a plain sheath dress.)
All photos are here and the pattern review is here.
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