Another Day, Another Dress

Another ESP Dress That Is

I have been making the Decades of Style ESP Dress for the past 4 years.  I have 5 versions currently in my closet and one when to the goodwill.  

I have altered the pattern to have a lower neck thanks to instructions from the lovely people at Decades of Style.  Here's the instructions, if you want to do the same. 

This summer - I decided at the very last minute to play along with the Sewcialists mini challenge.  The summer challenge was to work from the colors in the Sewcialists logo based on a spin telling you which color to use.  I spun coral - but honestly, my dress has most of the logo colors in it.  I cut and sewed the dress up in about 9 hours.  

 Almost all of my recent blog pictures have been taken by Carolyn and this dress is no exception.  She decided to come to Carriage Corner for a weekend at the end of August.  We took a trip to Winterthur to see the Costuming the Crown exhibit and she photographed several finished garments for me.

One of my biggest complaints about this dress is that the neckline is just too wide.  It literally falls off my shoulders, bra straps showing, the works - but they are comfortable and I love wearing them.  Well, while Carolyn was taking photographs she pointed out that both the bodice back & front were gaping a little bit and that I should alter my pattern to take 1/4" out of the center front at the very top.  Hmmm, interesting - that would also solve my wide neckline problem because it would bring the shoulders in.  Live and learn, girls, live and learn.

My to-sew list is feeling a bit out of control, but getting added to is really soon is another ESP dress with the center fronts altered.  I'm pretty sure I'll have to add the zipper back into the pattern, but that's easy.  I also feel like the bodice {now that I've taken it in just a smidge} is a bit too long, so that's another adjustment to make.

But the back waist seems to be just fine - probably because I've perfected my sway/short back adjustments for this pattern.  

One other trick that I really like to do on dresses with pockets?  Or anything with pockets for that matter - is to stitch the pockets in place on the front of the garment.  

So - look for another ESP dress soon-ish.  Which in my current world means within the year :D

Also, can I just say that I'm so happy I finally got my hair cut from the length in these pictures and got new glasses!  

ESP Picnic Dress (B&W Collection Dress 1)

This is a picture heavy post and I'll keep the comments to a minimum.   This is the first dress is what I'm calling the B&W Collection - a collection of 4 dresses all from black and white prints there were started to making packing and dressing on vacation easier - but I didn't get them finished.   

This is my newest ESP Dress - the picnic dress - now with lowered neckline

This dress is comfortable and easy to wear

I think - slowly - my photos are getting better

I really like my first ESP dresses and they have been in heavy rotation since finishing them.  But I found the neckline a bit too high.  So - I reached out to Decades of Style and asked how to lower the neckline.  I lowered the neckline on this dress 2" and it's just about perfect for me.  Other alterations:  placed center front bodice slightly off center and narrowed the sleeve width by 1.5"

The back fits better than this - but I was moving.

Also - in all honestly -  I could make the bodice a size smaller.

You can kind of see it in the photos above, but this dress has a 2" hem and then I added wide hem lace. 

Decades of Style, graciously, gave me permission to share the information.

That's amazing customer service - at least in my book.

Without further ado - here are the screen shots and instructions from Decades of Style.  (I was not compensated - just a very happy customer!)

First, here are your Front Bodice and Sleeve pieces as is in the pattern

Step 1. Line up the pieces at the front neck corner lining up the seam lines as best you can

Step 2. Extend the line from the top of the sleeve down into the Front Bodice as shown in pink

Step 3. Decide how much you want to lower the neck line and draw it from the center front over to meet the line extended from the Sleeve

Step 4. Draw from the new neck corner down to the Sleeve notch

Step 5. Cut along the newly drawn lines separating into 2 pieces as shown in pink

Step 6. Move the piece from the Bodice sleeve seam over to the Sleeve piece and attach

I hope you find this helpful!  I have to admit - it was a bit scary doing this alteration, but it worked!  And it was fairly easy given the instructions and screen shots.  Now - my neckline really looks square - where in the first version, not so much.  

What's the scariest alteration you've ever attempted?  And did it work?