Aldaia Dress from Pauline Alice, Version 2 for winter

There are a lot of sewing pattern companies and designers to choose from, and I generally stick to my personal favorites, which these days are Vogue patterns, New Look and Burda (which is a new development in the past couple of years but I'm now a fan). However there is one indie pattern designer that I find always suits my style: Pauline Alice Patterns. So it is no surprise that after sewing this pattern back in September I immediately made plans to sew up a version for colder weather. Finding this perfect knit at Stone Mountain Fabrics was the icing on the cake for my
winter version. And it goes so well with several of my coats!  Which might mean that my color palette is not very varied - but I don't really care. Jewel tones all the way.



My first version of this dress is here, in a cotton-lycra jersey. This version is a rayon jersey, so a bit more drapey, and the skirt is nicely swishy - which you will see if scroll further down. I didn't make any changes from the first version, other than to add the sleeves which I lengthened to make then wrist length.



This is such a super speedy dress to sew, and one thing I especially like is that the neck band fits perfectly, meaning it sews onto the bodice with just the right amount of stretch to fit against the neck and have no gaping.



Decidedly minimal sewing details for this one. The adjustment I did on the first version worked perfectly so no need to change that. Looking at my previous post I see that I didn't detail it so here goes. I added one inch of length on the front bodice pieces and attached the skirt at the center front using up that extra inch, and then tapered it away at the side seam. Note that I always construct things with side seams in the order of 1) all the front 2) all the back 3) sew the shoulder seams 4) play around with the fit of the side seams to fine tune. However this does mean that you have to be aware of how the waist seam will match up at the side seams.



Also note plenty of machine basting (mentioned in my previous Random Threads post) which is the quickest way I know to try out and fine tune the fit, then once it is OK I can sew each seam with normal stitch length, super quick with no pins or fussing since it is basted together. I also took it in a bit under the arm to make the bodice fit closely, however the sleeve is on the slim side so I didn't change it, just eased it in which worked fine.






Close up look at the bodice pleating. At my knit dress class everyone asked if I stitched the band with a twin needle - answer is no :) I just did two rows. To me twin needles are kind of fiddly and find it's easier to just stitch a 2nd row of topstitching.

This dress is a little bit twirly and I spent the better part of the afternoon learning how to make/upload a GIF. Be warned, now that I have this minor superpower I will find it hard to resist the lure of the GIF.



And if that isn't funny enough, when I looked at my photos at home I laughed again.




Because my selected location gives off a distinctly "Miniature Stonehenge" vibe. For those of you who are fans of This is Spinal Tap you will know what I mean. I figured it was time to get out of my backyard and find a new photo location.

Anyway - this dress is a winner and I'm sure it will be worn frequently in the coming months. Now I'm thinking about adding a collar and waist tie to this pattern to give it a bit of a DVF wrap dress look.

Up next - I just ordered a couple of patterns from McCalls including this vest pattern M7693 because I impulsively bought this when I was last at Stone Mountain. Who doesn't need a faux fur vest, right?

Happy Sewing, Beth

Do you laugh and/or cringe when you look at the photos for your blog posts? In this one it appears I'm impersonating a tour guide giving all the details of the mini-Stonehenge... "we couldn't afford the full size replica but this one is portable. Next year we are adding a Sphinx the size of a garden gnome and a 7 foot tall Leaning Tower so you can take those goofy holding up the tower with your hands photos without dealing with tricky things like perspective!"