Regailing: Sew Over It Ultimate Shift Dress

I've enjoyed Lisa Comfort's Sew Over It blog and online shop. She has videos and tutorials that are entertaining and inspiring. I splurged and bought fabric from her store in London and was impressed with how fast it arrived on my doorstep. When ordering keep in mind that the fabric is sold by the half meter.

I bought three beautiful fabrics. The first was a dusty pink with grey polka dots, from which I made a skirt. The second was a lovely silky print of castles and the third was a floral print - both of which I made into shifts.

This is a skirt from New Look #6326. You can see my full post here.

And this is the shift from New Look, pattern #6145. You can read about it at my post here.

And this is the Ultimate Shift Dress from Sew Over It. Since it comes from London, it's more convenient to download the pattern after you've purchased it. Downloading a pattern means that you print it out on your printer onto 8 x 11 sheets of paper and then painstakingly tape them together so you can cut out the pieces. Be sure to make sure you measure the test square on one of the pieces so that the printing comes out at actual size. My one complaint is that the test square was not on the first page so I wasted 30 sheets of paper before I realized the test square was not at actual size.

Directions were included and I recommend reading them through carefully before you begin. I read them as I went along and made 2 mistakes that I would not have made had I read more carefully. The first mistake I made was that the front piece should have been placed on the fold of the fabric. I wondered about that and even looked on the pattern piece but did not see any direction to do so and so I didn't. Consequently I had to sew the front pieces together causing a seam down the front. That is why I covered the seam with the green bias tape. My daughter thought it looked retro so I decided it was a serendipitous mistake and turned out just fine. I discovered too late that there was an indication on the pattern to put it on the foldline, but the word "foldline" was underneath the sections I taped together! Oh well, a wonderful carpenter once told my husband that the difference between a great carpenter and a not-so-great carpenter is that the great carpenter knows how to cover his mistakes!

The second mistake I made was sewing the neck facing on before I sewed on the collar. This was a bit unclear to me but if I had remembered which view I was sewing I would have caught my mistake. The collar was to be sandwiched between the neck and the neck facing but oh well... you can't tell I sewed the collar on top of the facing.

I was happy with the results and will use my pattern again. It is very versatile. I can make it with sleeves. I can make it with no collar. I can make it shorter as a tunic or top. There's no end to the creativity.