Selfish Sewing Week :: The Adora Dress

When I embarked on my year of buying no new clothes, The Nothing New Project, I sat down and thought through exactly what kinds of clothes I need and use regularly.  I divided my clothing needs into three different categories: 1. Everyday Wear (school pick-ups, working at home time, and lounging with the fam) 2. Going Out (drinks with my girls, dates with my husband, weddings) and 3. Work Clothes (teaching sewing, visit to fabric companies, other totally random outings). I didn’t want to make something that didn’t fit into one of these categories because it wasn’t ever going to be worn.  And that is why when I finally tried on this Adora dress (before hemming it) I danced a happy dance and said “It fits into all three!!”  Thank goodness for Selfish Sewing Week!

And look! It really is versatile enough for all three. I can absolutely teach a class, pick the kids up from school and go out for drinks in this dress.  I’m psyched.  The Adora Dress is a part of the new Unbiased Collection from Pattern Anthology (4 new patterns for $30) that has been making big waves lately.  Melissa from Blank Slate Patterns asked if I wanted to try out the patterns and I happily agreed. I knew right away that I wanted to make both the Adora Dress and the Gwen Top (more on that tomorrow).  I was, of course, hoping they would fit into my categories. So boom!

I bravely busted out the good stuff (I’m working on that these days…what use is such marvelous fabric if it sits tucked away?) and paired a classic Liberty of London woven with knit stripes from Riley Blake. I don’t remember where I got the stripes and the Liberty fabric was a gift from my husband after one of his trips to London.  Lucky bugger has been inside The Liberty Store five times more than I have, which is to say that he has been there exactly five times.  The indignity.

Anyway, I loved the yoke look of this dress but didn’t want too much of a contrast between the dress body and the yoke and I like how the black background ties them together. I also like that the idea of stripes is echoed within the Liberty print.

I did have to grapple with lots of stripe matching but this is the curse of a stripes lover!

For the most part, this dress came together beautifully.  I did find that the front bodice piece, at the very top, didn’t fit exactly with the dress body and had to reshape the armholes a bit as a result.  It could have been because of the inherent challenge of sewing together a woven fabric with a knit.  I’m not sure.  I also found the bottom hem was off when the two side seams came together.  The back of the dress was longer than the front. But, it wasn’t a problem because I ended up wanting to shorten the whole dress anyway.

I also made a few small changes of my own.  To finish the armholes I stitched a 1″ strip of knit fabric and used that like a piece of bias tape. And, I topstitched along the top of the yoke, which the pattern didn’t call for but I felt added a more finished look.

The Adora successfully maneveurs in a tricky area.  It manages to hide the tummy and the *ahem* junk-in-the-trunk but is also really sexy but still casual. Not an easy one to pull off.  I like looking kind of sexy but covered and also like I’m not trying.  Smooth move Adora!

And much to my delight, throw a tailored jacket over this dress and it’s immediately even more dressed up!

Note: This pattern was provided to me free of charge but my opinions are my own and reflect my true experiences. I was not compensated for this review.