Just squeezing in one more make before Christmas! I had an unexpected day off on Friday so had a selfish sewing day – after all the gift buying/sewing it felt pretty good.
I’ve had Victory Patterns’ Lola dress on my radar for a while – lord knows I love a comfy day dress, and look at those POCKETS – but to be honest I was put off by all the panels, imagining all the little pieces that would need to be cut and assembled. I finally bought the print-at-home pattern after seeing some beautiful versions from Rachel, Lauren and Dixie, and found my fears completely unfounded: this lovely little pattern comes together very quickly and is a delight to sew.
In fact I think the panelling details make this a more enjoyable project to sew than a regular dress pattern: it all whizzed up quickly on the overlocker and every piece fitted perfectly into place. I love the bodice, with its flattering princess seams, and how the edge panels wrap around with no side seam. And the raglan sleeves!
And did I mention the POCKETS? Love it all, really.
I was a good girl and used up some stash fabrics: a solid grey ponte knit, part of a big remnant piece from Rolls & Rems, and a lovely crescent moon printed ponte from Minerva (the rest of which has gone into a Christmas present!). The shades of grey aren’t a perfect match but I think they look nice together and make this casual sweatshirt dress a little bit smarter. I omitted the triangle neckline decal and the ribbing panel on the bottom, and also just used the ponte instead of ribbing at the neckline and cuffs.
I didn’t toile as I was using stash fabrics, but I would recommend it as I found I needed to do a bit of adjustment which was tricky to retrofit. I cut a straight size 6 according to my measurements but found it a bit loose around the middle and too long in the body. I was able to fix the length by taking about 1.5″ off the bottom panels, but it’s still a little baggy around the middle as I couldn’t really alter it once constructed. I will adjust the pattern pieces to fix these bits before making another Lola (yes, I’m sure there will be more).
It even goes great with my coat! I love a me-made outfit day (apart from the leggings, though I definitely want to make some of those next year too).
I think this’ll be my last post before diving headlong into a week or two of festivities, so hope you all have a lovely Christmas and see you on the other side!
19 Comments