New Look 6224

It was love at first sight for me and this pattern. It has several variations so it will be a pattern I will return to.  I chose this cotton drill fabric which is quite heavy. Alas I shan't get to wear this dress until the weather cools down again. The only adjustment I made to this pattern was to the skirt section. The pieces looked a wee bit narrow for my belly so I extended the pieces by a few centimetres. The only major complication I had with this pattern was attaching the yoke. For some reason you attached the facing section to the inside first and were meant to finish it off on the outside.  When you are working with a curve you can guarantee it is not going to be smooth. Usually this is done inside and when you hand sew it it will look a little uneven but who cares no-one can see it. I mean you turn over a seam allowance as accurately as you can (but who is going to get an accurate 1cm) and then press it, but it definitely never looks even and smooth.

So I went ahead and did it the way the pattern instructions said, and even finished it off on the outside with a top stitch. It looked terrible.  I unpicked it all and went back to the way that made sense attaching the right sides together, turning it over and finishing it off on  the inside of the garment - voila. I had done the version with a bow for the front, but because of the busy fabric the bow was a little over the top. 



It would be interesting to try this dress with a softer fabric and the variation on the sleeve. Though I don't really like the version with the skinny neck piece as much.