A handful of Zéphyr Dresses

(tl;dr: the overview)

I swear I make patterns from designers who aren’t Deer and Doe. Knowing that their block fits me near perfectly (with my franken-grading) makes it really hard to justify any other designer, though.

The patterns is a sleeveless knit skater dress, with princess seams for a fantastic fit. I think I might be slightly obsessed with princess seams – they’re so much easier to fit and sew than darts are! I made version B (the slightly curved V-neck), because I’m not really a crew neckline sort of person. I did raise the neckline by about an inch, but forgot to carry that over to the lemon dress.

I cut my usual mix of Deer and Doe sizes – I have this written down in a notebook somewhere, but I think it was a 38 front, 36 back. Since the hips are free-sized, I didn’t do my usual hip grading. I grabbed the sleeves from the Plantain pattern, and added 2cm to the armscye to account for the sleeves.

I’ve made this dress 3 times now – the first tweed jacket knockoff, the wool jersey, and the lemon print. I underlined all of them in a powermesh, since the knits are a little too thin for me to wear as a bodice alone.

This dress came together in a few hours, from the cutting, hand-basting the underlining, and the construction. No closures and only 6 pieces makes for a VERY quick finish!

There are no differences between the versions, besides the different fabrics and the sleeves/sleveless dress.

This pattern is probably my tried-and-true knit dress pattern – it’s quick and easy to make, flattering, and really comfortable! The fit’s pretty spot on, though there’s a little too much negative ease in the dress. I might go up a size next time I make this.

beep boop

Overview

Fabric //

The tweed knockoff

The wool jersey

The lemon

Notions // none!

Pattern //

Sizing //

a 38 front, 36 back

See Also //

Attack of the Seam Ripper, Creations Du Papillon, long-sleeved version, Creations Du Papillon, sleeveless

Adjustments