Style Arc Adeline Dress #2

On Christmas Eve afternoon I got the silly idea to sew up my second Style Arc Adeline Dress to wear on Christmas Day. I did have a bit of a head start, as I had done all the cutting out and fusing the interfacing to the facings the night before. I thought it would only take a couple of hours as I had sewn it before here, but sadly I was a little over ambitious and I didn't finish it until 9pm and then I still had Christmas food to prepare. Anyway, all the stress has now been forgotten and these photos were taken yesterday in my mother's garden during it's second wearing, at a family New Year get together.

The fabric is a cotton linen blend purchased from Spotlight in a very colourful floral print. This fabric behaved very well and was a pleasure to sew and press. It was also nice and wide and I was able to eliminate the centre back seam. Also, wrinkling that is usually an issue with linen has not been a problem. I don't know the percentage of linen to cotton in this blend, but it wears very well with little wrinkling.

I made my usual Style Arc size 12 and I did make a couple of pattern alterations to this one in order to improve the fit. I shortened the length by 3cm at the lengthen/shorten line to give it a more summery vibe and I did a forward shoulder adjustment following this guide from Sew Hopeful.

The shoulder seam on the Adeline Dress is a relatively straight line. I removed a wedge from the front shoulder, 1.5cm at the sleeve edge tapering to nothing at the neckline. I then added this wedge to the back shoulder. This worked very well and the dress sits better on my shoulders, without wanting to slip back all the time. 

It is very important to stabilise the neckline to avoid any distortion or stretching. I did this by sewing some narrow cotton tape to the stitching line on the wrong side. It worked beautifully and the neckline sits perfectly. All the facings (neckline and hem) were under stitched and then top stitched so there is no problem with them flipping out or misbehaving at all.

The photo above was taken as I was attaching the patch pockets to the front. I posted this on IG, not knowing if I was going to be able to finish it in time for Christmas. I was very happy when I did manage to finish it in time as it was perfect for our Christmas Day weather and it was comfortable and stylish...but best of all, there was plenty of room for all that Christmas over indulging that tends to happen on Christmas Day.

I think I have a new favourite dress, and judging by the number of Adeline dresses popping up on my IG feed, it is becoming a very popular pattern. My darling grand daughter wanted to join in the photo shoot and this shot was just so lovely of her that I had to include it.

Wishing all my followers a wonderful 2017 filled with the joy of sewing.

Jean