Thursday, April 16, 2009

Portabellopixie Gracie Dress

I've completed my first dress from the Portabellopixie Gracie pattern - view B Tiered Dress. The pattern booklet is a bit more pricey than most, but since it comes with 4 different things to make (3 of which are quite different), you're basically paying for 3-4 patterns at once which makes it worth it (and I intend on making the other patterns down the road as well). Also, by buying it on Etsy with the fabric for the three dresses I plan to make, I got a nice discount.
First off, I was pleasantly suprised at how quickly and easily this dress came together. I would guess that I spent about 6 hours on it in total (although I'm not new to sewing). I spent a couple hours the first evening going over the instructions and cutting it all out. The next evening I hemmed the bottom, and did all the gathering and pinning of the layers; and the third evening I sewed it all up.
I did make one change to the pattern - I added an extra tier. Before I attached the bodice to the tiers, I realized that I wasn't happy with the finished length. I wanted the dress to fall below the knee, not above it (after all, it's a pretty twirly dress and you wouldn't want panties showing). And that was also one of the faults I found with the pattern, no finished measurements of the dress (at least that I could find). Had I known this before this point, I would have changed the width of the top tier to make more of a gathered look between the top one and the one I added (or changed the length of all the tiers before I started cutting).
Another thing I wanted to point out is the bias binding on the top edge of the collar. When I first read this in the instructions, I was slightly confused and had to read it over a couple times to understand the reasoning or concept of this. But once I actually did it, I found it easy and not very time consuming, and it gave a very nice finished look.
Overall, I found the pattern easy to follow. There were some minor missed instructions and pattern pieces that were stamped with wrong amounts to cut, but it was easy to figure out if you've sewn a couple dresses before. I will definitely be making this pattern again and look forward to trying the other ones out as well.

9 comments:

Pauline Perh said...

Nice dress, I love Portabellopixie's design too. But because of the price and I find the designs are quite similar to some of the designs in my Japanese pattern book,(thinking that I might be able to modify the pattern ;P) that's why I didn't buy.

Anonymous said...

Is one of the ones for the wedding?
It is very cute and you did a great job!
Shari :)

Alisa said...

I love it!! The extra tier looks good and not like an add on. So sweet. Can't wait to see the others :-)

Sue said...

It turned out very nice! I love the colours of the fabric!

CindyLou said...

Looks adorable and I love the length of it! One of my pet peeves is pattern instructions! Do they ever proof these things? I hardly ever read the directions. Just confuses me more!

Anonymous said...

I love the way your dress turned out.

I just purchased this pattern, and am a novice sewer, and I was wondering if the instructions on attaching the yoke to the bodice are correct (i.e. the part about inserting the bodice between the layers). I'm getting stuck at that part.

Our Busy Little Bunch said...

Yes, the instructions are correct. Make sure you're attaching the bottom of the collar to the top of the bodice (so when you flip it up, the collar looks correct). The bodice should be sandwiched between right sides of collar - just pin the centers first and then rest of middle piece, then side pieces, then sleeve openings last). You'll finish off the top edge of the collar in the next steps when you flip it up and attach the bias binding to it. If you run into any more problems or this isn't clear, just send me an email at beccama@telus.net

Nancy said...

I popped over from Mels Place....

CUTE CUTE dress and even cuter little girl...

Andrea said...

Your dress and your little girl are beautiful!
I'm trying to finish the jumper in time for Easter but am having the WORST time with the collar. The instructions say to line up the INSIDE of the collar with the top of the jumper. I think that is an error. It doesn't seem like the collar is long enough to reach from one side of the bodice to the other. Wish me luck...I'll need it :(