Audrey Dress, Famous Frocks: Little Black Dress

Sometimes the odd occasion springs up that's a little out of the ordinary, the work Christmas party, dinner with visiting friends, errrr a date, something where I want to make a bit of extra effort in the outside world. Recently though I have been struggling to pick an outfit for all of the above. Wanting to go me-made for a chance to show off my skills, but getting to the wardrobe and finding my best makes area bit too casual or for summer-wear only. Every girl should have a little black dress, and I'll admit I had the book for a long time, but not the courage to get cracking and make one.

Flicking through the Famous Frocks, Little Black Dress book by Dolin Bliss O'Shea my criteria for pattern picking was that the dress would be first and foremost sophisticated and classy, simple but fitted, not toooooo difficult for my frankly, under-practiced dressmaking skills, but also a bit of a challenge where I stood to learn something new. All the dresses are lovely, with each one having a pattern variation in the book too. I chose the Audrey dress with the straight skirt variation as I loved the simple, timeless shape, and the instant nod to Ms. Hepburn with that neckline.

I knew my desire to have a lovely fitted dress meant that there would be no avoiding making multiple calico muslins. I think this clocked in at cutting the pattern 3x with a different set of alterations each time.... But I am so glad I took my time on this one! Instead of rushing I was methodical and made one change at a time. It was definitely a challenge but I'm so happy with the fit. My alterations were as follows:

1
Altered the princess seam by taking some in at the overbust. I changed the curve of the breast a little then realised if I increased the inward curve under the bust on the side panel piece I would get a better fit. After making this adjustment I thought the centre front panel would look better if I straightened out the bottom of the seam where it meets the skrt, instead of the slight inward gradient of the pattern.

2
After making bust alterations, I decided to add 0.5cm to the sideseams of the panel pieces to ensure that he bodice wasn't now pulling elsewhere. If I wasn't going to use a fabric as sturdy as calico to squish me in then I wanted the fit to be roomy enough to avoid rippling!

3
As predicted, there was too much fabric in the lower back. I had two attempts at taking some out, with my fist swayback adjustment improving things greatly but still not achieving my perfect fit. To make the adjustment, I pinched out the excess fabric in the lower back and pinned, drew the kinda banana shape of the wedge I'd pinched, then opened out my toile and traced this back onto the pattern. I then folded this out of the paper pattern and smushed the rest of the paper flat. I made sure the grainline was still straight by straightening up centre back edge above he smushing. Tracing off this pattern makes the top edge of the back skirt dip down.

4
My extra fabric in my lower back problem wasn't made any better by the fact that the bodice was just a little bit too long. I ended up increasing the seam allowance to 2.5cm (!) at the waistline, which shortened the body and also removed some of the excess fabric in my lower back. This was a bit risky as I then had to make sure I assessed the dart placement so the princess seams still matched with the skirt darts. I made sure I realigned the top of my back darts so that they still matched up post-swayback adjustment, and also made both of the back darts longer and the inside back dart wider.

5
I lowered the neckline by a further 1.5cm to the alteration suggested in the book, as changing the princess seam had slightly changed the shape of the neckline and as a result it looked like it was sitting a little too high. Note I kept the back neck as suggested in the book with no further changes.

6
A predictable one- I made the skirt length shorter! Taking odd about 12cm, allowing for a 1.5cm hem.

7
I took in the excess fabric at the side seams between the waist and hips. The skirt really started to look like my other skirt patterns now! - Quite long and straight at the waist then a curve out at the hips. I was conscious not to take out too much here as I didn't want it to pull across the hips.


I feel so much more confident in making dress alterations after this! I'm not going to lie, there were a couple of times I almost tossed the whole thing into the bin! But I'm very pleased with myself for persevering. It was a massive confidence boost once I realised the drag lines in the hip area where occurring because there was too much fabric to the outside of the dart, and it needed to be pinched out horizontally at the waistline. Also watching my swayback adjustment totally transform the dress was maybe one of my giddiest sewing moments!

Aside from fitting alterations, I learnt a few technical things I hadn't done before whilst making this dress too. I followed the correct process for sewing the princess seams. It's quite fiddly fitting the opposing curves together so I was glad I read the instructions for sewing princess seams aha! Step one- once the pieces are cut is to staystitch the centre front pieces between the notches at about 1.2cm from the edge. Then match up the notches and the top and bottom with those of the side panel, making sure to pin with the centre piece on the top. Clip at 6mm intervals on the centre piece only, along the curve up to the stitching, then this edge can be pulled out to match the edge of the side panel as you sew. Having the side panel on the bottom as you stitch means the machine does most of the work in moving the curve along.

I also stitched my first baby hem! On the back of the skirt there is a vent and the back of the vent is hemmed using a baby hem. I stitched 1cm from the edge, folded over along the stitchline and pressed. Then sewed 3mm from the folded edge and trimmed the edge of the fabric, as close to the stitch line as possible. Folded over again along this line and then sewed 3mm from the folded edge, creating the hem. I read that this is really good for curved hems and tricky fabrics so will definitely keep this in my skill inventory!


Lining the dress was pretty easy. Only the bodice is lined, using the same pattern pieces as the outside dress. I used an offcut from my McCalls trousers which was the perfect fabric - light and drapey enough to be a lining and also subtle enough to be in keeping with the sophisticated vibes of my dress. It is also of note, that the rest of the dress was made with only 1m of fabric. I could alllllmost have squeezed out the lining too but it just wasn't meant to be. I quite fancy playing around with different fabrics for the side panels next time. I think a bit of careful fabric choice could make the dress look really slimming.

The dress is designed to have a lapped zip in the side seam. I already has a black invisible zip in my stash though so decided to stick with what I know. This didn't really alter any of the rest of the steps in making the dress, only that when it came to pressing under the side seams where the zipper goes, well i didn't I just chalked on a 1.5cm line to line my zip up to and tacked it in before sewing. I used my zipper foot then to turn the lining to the outside and stitch close to the zipper line. Turning the lining back to the inside results in the edges of the lining now being hidden and the zipper being comfortably sandwiched between the inside and outside fabrics.

I also didn't make the hem as wide as suggested in the book. I overlocked the edge then turned up buy 1.5cm. I blind hemmed this by hand so that the stitches don't show on the front of the dress- I thought it deserved it!

I'm super happy with the dress! It is literally exactly what I wanted. I think I just need to move the skirt front darts outwards by like a millimetre or two next time to so the are bang on to match the bodice seams. I'm so pleased with what I have learnt making this dress though, I definitely feel more confident about tackling other dresses in this book (the Grace dress uses the same skirt pattern so would only have to perfect the bodice), and other fitted dresses in general.



I'm already dreaming up occasions to wear this dress! Did someone say dinner party? No? Well it's only a matter of time.

x

Location: Tapton Hall, Sheffield
Currently listening to: Satan and Saint Paul, John Fullbright