Tah-dah! My first yoyo dress is finished!And I’m sure it’ll be the first of many.

 

I love this dress – the zip feature, the pleats and the interesting shape. I went for a contrasting silver zip down the front and I think it works really well. I was a bit concerned when I bought the zip that it was a bit thick/heavy for a dress, but actually now I’ve sewn it in I think it’s pretty perfect.

So this pattern is beautiful, but we did have a few issues. Probably because I was so keen to get it made I managed to mess up the pleats three times. Yes, three. I managed to sew them facing the wrong way so then they didn’t line up with the darts in the bodice at all, and then I managed to have both pleats folded the same way. Worst thing was I didn’t even notice until I’d sewn the skirt to the bodice AND finished the seam with the faux-serger-style stitch on my Singer. So much unpicking. So frustrating!! But we got there.

I also had a bit of an issue getting the neckline edges above the zip even. I don’t think I even took a photo of my first attempt because it was SO bad! Totally uneven and some of the top of the zip tape was sticking out from the seam too. I’d already sewn the whole zip in at that point so to avoid re-doing all of the zip I just unpicked and re-sewed the top edges. It actually worked really well and I’m happy with how even the edges look now.

This was one of those projects where I ran out of thread right at the end of sewing. Luckily I’d finished the machine sewing bits though and had enough left on the bobbin for hand-stitching the facing in place. That took ages. I’m not sure if I could maybe shortcut that somehow next time…

I think this is probably more a pattern for the bit more experienced sewer. The elements like the pleats, darts and matching the two at the seams, plus inserting the zip and sewing the facing around the whole of the edge of the dress does make this a pattern bit challenging. It probably helps if you read the instructions more fully and double check those pleats before sewing though…

Overall though I love this pattern and would highly recommend it. The dress is a beautiful and interesting shape and i love the clean finish the facings give it. Coming next: the skirt version!

Thanks for reading