Simplicity 3742: Various incarnations

So I made Simplicity 3742 a few weeks back as an 8 grading to 12 and it was just too tight on top. So today I made it again in a straight 12. Muuuuch better. I could have gone for 14 to get more gathering action, but this looks ok.


I'm kind of shocked that the bow looks half way decent!

It's made from a poly/rayon linen-look blend from Hancock online. Does it look too much like a nightgown? Can I wear it to a baby shower next weekend that might be outside?

I totally forgot to do a swayback adjustment.






I thought you might like to see this pattern in its various incarnations. I took these pix while making view B.

View A is without any ties so it looks a bit sack-like:




View C has ties at the waist. In real life, you would make a casing and pull the rope through the casing. Just as a demo, I wrapped the cord around the outside of the dress to give you an idea of what it would look like.



When I saw that, I thought that I might change the direction of this dress and make C instead of B. I kind of like the slouchy vibe and slightly Obi Wan/Friar Tuck feeling of the cording, but I also like the underbust gathers of B so I continued on.

Also I thought I'd share a few lessons I learned when I made the prior attempt at view B, which I then applied to this dress. Understitch the facing and tack it on the edge to prevent the seam allowance from flipping to the front of the dress


You'll want to tack the bottom seam allowance of the facing as well, to also prevent it from flipping to the front of the dress.

Zig-zag or serge both the top and bottom edges of the facing after sewing the top edge of the facing to the dress but before sewing the bottom edge of the facing to the dress. This prevents little frayed strings from tufting out of the resulting casing for the strap like hair sprouting from an old man's ears (nice visual, right?)



I learned those lessons the hard way, and before I gave the too-small-for-me version to my friend Denise I had to hand tack the facings back because they were all flipping to the front and fraying.

There's another dress I want to sew tomorrow, but I also need to do something called chores, so I might not get to it.

The temperature was just lovely yesterday and today!! It feels vaguely like it's September, not the last day of July, but I'm not complaining!!

Also, this pattern number 3742 is the exact reverse of the last dress I made, 2473.

Good night!