Sassy Sewing

My Francoise dress

Sunday, April 12th, 2015

I’m really pleased with my new Francoise dress from a Tilly and the Buttons pattern. It’s a retro design which looks great in this 60s-look cotton fabric. I love this sort of dress – not clingy (which I’m not too keen on) but it certainly flatters the figure, helping to achieve an hour glass look. It’s quite short, so check before you cut that you’re happy with the length – it really isn’t difficult to make it longer if that suits you better.

I went for the sleeveless version which makes it feel more summery, although I’ll need to be brave to wear it without tights/leggings – my legs are not in quite as good shape as they used to be!

So this was an easy make – nothing particularly tricky at all. I have been asked about the sizing a few times though. Tilly steers clear of the usual 12, 14, 16 etc. instead opting to list her sizes 1 – 8. She is very clear about how to choose which size to make, giving body measurements and finished garment measurements for each size. I measured myself and decided I was a five (I’m currently a little bigger than usual – too many visits to the coffee and cake shop) and the fit was perfect. If you’re between sizes go for the larger one. If in doubt, make the dress up in cheap fabric or muslin first (a test version commonly known as a toile) and then decide if it’s right or not and change and adjust accordingly.

There are bust darts which are simple enough, but on this dress you have waist darts too. I highly recommend tailor tacking or drawing these in with an erasable pen before you sew. They are quite long and shaped too and it would be easy to have a wobble if you are trying to ‘freestyle.’ Done properly these add lovely shaping to the dress and it would be a shame to spoil this for just a little more effort. I’m only saying this as I don’t always draw my dart lines in (I shouldn’t be admitting to this) but on the waist darts here I knew it would be crucial to the fitting and style. The armholes are finished with bias binding and the neckline has facings. There is a pattern piece included so you can make the bias out of the same material, but I opted for ready-made bias as, on this dress it’s used as a facing so isn’t really seen anyway – but either option is good. The neckline facings are easy to sew and are applied after the zip is inserted. The zip is an invisible, long zip but I also think you could add a fancy zip (lace maybe) on the outside as a feature and that would look great. It’s a simple dress so any embellishments like this would work. Even a row of ric-rac around the bottom or a bit of bling would be fine.

There is an optional tab at the front of this dress which I decided to add. This is in two pieces – one you add interfacing to. Then you sew around the edge, right sides together before turning right sides out through a little opening before top stitching it shut. I would highly recommend you draw in the sewing line if you make the tab as it’s quite difficult to get all four corners equal (they are rounded) doing it freestyle – mine are definitely wobbly. You attach the tab to the dress using two buttons. I found though that the tab gaped away from the dress a little, so next time I’d use maybe three buttons or put a catch stich at the top and bottom of the tab to hold it firm.

I did want to put the optional collar on the dress and cut out and made one with no bother. However when I came to fit it, the two pieces of the collar didn’t meet in the middle as they are supposed to – in fact they were about three inches apart which is no good at all. So if you’re adding the collar, measure carefully before cutting. Even though it didn’t fit, I could see that the collar would be a nice touch, so don’t be put off making one.

All in all a lovely dress and a stress-free sew which could be easily started and finished in one day. Or even an afternoon if you don’t get too distracted  like I always manage to!

Francoise dress

Francoise pattern

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