The Amelie Dress by pattydoo

Hello my sewing friends I am back this week with my Amelie Dress I made for the #sewingpatternsandprints challenge. This is a year round challenge that prompts you to use different kinds of patterns each month (e.g. ‘Monochrome May’ or ‘Geometric June’). I’ve participated the last two months and I might even make it through the year. But I vowed not to buy any new fabric to accommodate the challenge. Why not check it out on Instagram? You can check it out even if you don’t have an Instagram account just head over to the lovely Kealy’s youtube channel to learn more.

My pattern

First off let me tell you that this was the first time sewing up a pattydoo pattern for myself. The price for a digital pattern is very vera reasonable and you have access to the free youtube “how to” construction videos on their channel. 

I chose the Amelie knotted dress because I thought it would show off the cherries but distract from the stripes (you that matching stripes is a pain). Plus, I have never made a knotted dress before and I like the look. 

My fabric

The fabric I used was a very soft high quality jersey fabric that I got from the fabric market that takes place twice a year just across the border in Germany. I paid about 35€ for 2 metres of viscose jersey. 

Obviously you start by assembling your pdf and cutting your size. I did not make any adjustments to this pattern because I wanted to check the general fit of pattydoo patterns. If you scroll down you’ll see that the dress pretty much fits me like it is supposed to (yayyy!).

My sewing

Remember that the seamallowances are 0.7cm so adjust your knife.

Start by attaching the front skirt to the front bodice of your Amelie dress.

Then fold the “knot” as shown in the picture along the notches.
 

Continue to stitch down the folds you just created by staying on the overlocked seam.

This is how your dress should look now.

Fold the left side of your dress along the markings…

… and repeat for the other side.

Continue by attaching the front to the back at the shoulders.

I tend to use ribbon to stabilize shoulder seams. Especially with viscose knits. More stable knits might not need this.

Add the neckline band to your Amelie dress and iron everything flat.

The pattern does not tell you to topstitch the neckline but I always do it, because even after washing it will stay nice and flat. If your neckline is reasonably big you don’t even need to use a stretch stitch. In this example I used my walking foot and lengthened my straight stitch to about 3. 

If you slide the needle to the left side you can align the center marking of the walking foot with the seamline and you will have an even topstitching line.

Tadaaaa…

Insert the sleeves and connect your side seams.

The final step is to do your hems. I always like to press it beforehand. Sometimes even before I do the side seams.

There you go! This was one of the easier projects I did in the last few weeks and I needed an easy win. Plus, now it actually is cherry season so I will fit right in.

I noticed though that the dress or rather the knot falls exactly to where the pattern illustration suggest which is a liiiiiittle low for my personal liking. For future versions of the Amelie Dress (and I will definitely make more, rest assured) I will lengten the skirt ans shorten the bodice slighty to bring the knot more to my natural waistline.

That’s it sewing friends. 

Happy Sewing!