Work in progress: Red Betty!

Work in progress: Red Betty!

I should start this post by saying that I’ve never owned a red ‘work’ dress before. I consider my office style to be pretty conservative, so my wardrobe is full of black and grey clothing with the odd bit of mustard yellow or lighter blues and greys for when I’m feeling particularly colourful!

However, I was in the fabric shop the other day when I came across this burgundy suiting fabric and for some reason I decided to take it home (after paying, of course) and make a work dress from it. I had seen Sew Over It’s new add-on pack for the Betty dress which included a v-neck bodice that looked rather cute, so I figured I’d try and put that bodice onto a high-waisted pencil skirt pattern and see what happened!

It’s taken me a while to get around to sewing, but I’ve done the bodice so far (apart from hemming the sleeves) and hopefully the skirt won’t take too long to do. 

The pattern itself is a nice one to sew, I cut my size as indicated by my measurements and I drafted a higher back neckline, to be more work appropriate. I put a couple of back shoulder darts in for my round back. I do find the front neckline very wide, it feels like the shoulders are hanging on by a thread (sorry for the pun) but from the pattern images it looks like that was the idea. Maybe the fullness of the Betty skirt counteracts that by weighing it down.. So next time I make it I might try to widen the shoulders / close up the v-neck a bit and hope I don’t need up with gaping problems round the neckline.

I was really pleased with my sleeve-setting, I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of it and therefore I’m not so scared of them. My mum basically told me to ignore the wrinkles at the edge of the seam and focus on getting a wrinkle free stitching line, and once I got my head around that, it really helped. I almost feel ready to try a simple jacket!

(I haven’t pressed my neckline yet, only under stitched, so I expect to get it sitting flatter.)

In the next part of this post I’ll let you know how the Ultimate Pencil Skirt graft works out… And whether I think I’ll have the guts to actually wear my Red Betty to work!

– Michelle –

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