New Look Women's Dress N6262

Once I started to get in to sewing, I knew I wanted to find a pattern for a skater-style dress. The shape works so well for my body, but shops have stopped selling it in the past few years in favour of more figure hugging items. With a bit of searching on Jaycotts, I found New Look 6262. I love the shape of the dress because it’s classic. I like hints to the 1950s in my clothes, and this dress certainly does that with the fitted bodice and nipped in waist. The gathers in the skirt give it a little bit more volume without going full, which I just find more practical for day-to-day life. The added bonus is that it’s a relatively easy sew – just some darts, gathers and an invisible zip (I’ve only ever sewn invisible zips – it’s the only zip I've been taught, and as it give a more professional finish I’ve never bothered to try anything else). Therefore it’s a dress I can make again and again. My Mum’s shopping motto is ‘if you find something that really works, buy two’ and I want to take this in to my sewing as I slowly create a whole new wardrobe. I’ve made three versions of view D of the pattern so far. Because the style is both simple and classic, the fabric can take centre stage. Which is great, because when it’s comes to prints the bolder the better for me. I’m shy in a lot of areas of my life, but not when it comes to my clothes. One of the thing is love most about making my own clothes is that I can be bold and playful with prints. I made the first version (with the impressionist dots) as is with no alterations. For the second, in the bird print fabric, I used the guidance in The Great British Sewing Bee From Stitch to Style book to make the back narrower. It still had too much room i it so for the third version I took some of the width out of the back bodice by taking a couple of centimetres off the centre back seams, and graded in a little bit at the waist and voila. And. Can I just say. Wow. The bodice fits like a dream - so much so that I have convinced myself to reverse engineer the changes on my original version of the dress (nickname: dotty). Now I hate alterations. They depress me greatly. So much unpicking, and fiddly work. BUT. Once the laborious unpicking is done, it will be simple to take the extra centimetres out of the back bodice pieces. And my favourite dress (which my dotty version totally is) will be a perfect fit.

When I first printed this fabric, I fell in love with it – I like the pattern, but it’s the lovely subdued colours in shades of brown, blue and green that I really fell for. I imagined it in a dress, and this pattern, which came with my Sew magazine, was what I imagined!
New Look patterns usually fit me pretty well, so I only had to make minor adjustments, mainly to the length. It went together very easily and is comfortable to wear. I made view B and only needed 2m of fabric, despite liking my dresses a bit longer than the pattern. It’s a simple, straight-forward style, with darts for shaping and in-seam pockets. I will definitely be using this pattern again.