The Sigma Dress from Papercut Patterns – finished!

I’m a total convert to this New Zealand based pattern maker! The patterns have so far been so easy to follow and make beautiful dresses, plus they come in the most beautiful packaging. I mean they do take a couple of weeks to arrive and are at the top end of my budget, but still great as a wee treat.

The Sigma Dress was a Christmas present from my brother, so I thought it was about time I made it! I bought the fabric aaaages ago from Fabrix in Lancaster, my favourite fabric shop of all time. It’s quite thick with a one-way stretch and actually very similar to a lot of the prints on the High Street at the moment.

These are from River Island (and I’m still so tempted to buy both) and have a similar smudged pattern.

Here are my work in progress shots, as modelled by my mannequin below!

It’s not obvious from this photo but I went for the version with gathers either side of the waist, which I thought would be most flattering. I cut out the medium size without bothering to measure because I made the Clover dress in a medium, but this one was massive! I had to unpick the waist to take in the side seams and then still had loads of excess material at the back. I’ll definitely be measuring properly and cutting a smaller size next time! It’s also quite a short pattern, which was fine for this dress but worth noting for the future.

I was a bit stuck with this dress for a while though because I couldn’t decide on what to do for the sleeves. I think the versions with the long sleeves look great, but I wasn’t sure about it for this thick material. I like the short sleeves too, but there have been so many times I’ve added sleeves to dresses and then wished I hadn’t… but I went with the sod it, let’s do short sleeves attitude!

I’m really pleased with how this one turned out. Love this pattern and its definitely one I’ll be using again. Next time though I will measure up properly and cut out the size that will actually fit properly! And probably add a few inches to the length too; ah tall people issues.