Simplicity 3559 – what it’s like to sew it…

• Pattern/company

Simplicity 3559

• pattern picture

• Fabric/trims/notions used

Craft cottons, with plain homespun trims. Matching buttons for the sleeves. No zip (was easy for me to get on without one).

• Piccie of finished garment (Taken at the  July 2011 Happy Yess Markets)

• Inspiration (for the garment)

I’ve always loved mod style. My mother bought the green fabric – in the store she got to it just before me. When she hadn’t sewn anything out of it after 3 yrs I tentatively asked her if I could have it. She agreed! YAY!!!

The purple paisley I’d had for ages, bought for a different pattern I’d never sewn up. When the green worked out so well I realised it would work beautifully in the purple. It does!

The really funny thing is the same green worked for trim on both dresses. Sister dresses!

• Useful info

I found the neckline quite difficult. The green dress is made following the original pattern. At the bottom of the collar/placket bit, there are two square seams. I’m not afraid of square seams! However, it proved almost impossible to get the right amount of trim width to make two square seams so close to each other. I’m not that messy a sewer. It was just … unrealistically hard.

So I sewed down the sides to the base of the placket section, then pressed and pinned the two sides of trim in place and simply top-stitched it all into place. SOOO much easier technically and temperamentally!

For some reason on the purple I just got it wrong, unpicked it, redid it – again wrong, unpicked it, repeat ad nauseum. In the end I totally redid it as a collar/tie affair. The front cut-away for the placket bit was so low that when I changed to the collar/tie, to make the front stop revealing my bra reasonably modest, I set in a square of fashion fabric into the lower bit of it. The fabric is such that it really doesn’t show much, and the attention is drawn to the tie.  The only problem is the collar section folds over scruffily. I suppose ironing it before wearing would fix it, but I  HATE ironing am severely allergic to ironing and come out in all-over hives.

• Cost

Green fabric – gift from my awesome mum!

Trim – 50cm @ $7 = $3.50

Pattern – totally forgotten, how about $10?

Buttons – $3.50

Purple fabric – 2.2m @ $15pm = $31.50

Trim – stash (well ok, it had been in the stash 3 days after finishing the green dress trim :-P)

Pattern – second time used

Buttons – stash

• Last word

These dresses are so comfortable, flattering, a great weight to wear in this climate. I grab one out of the wardrobe, put it on and am instantly well-dressed. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Other posts on this pattern

A dress for Happy Yess (Green paisley version)

Purple paisley dress WIP

Armscye fitting