What's your definition of "Work Appropriate" when it comes to dresses? Of course, one's work environment will determine the definition of "work appropriate" so it's not necessarily a one-size-fits-all situation. I started drafting this post before I read Charlotte's recent post about dressing for work and loved reading her post and the discussion in the comments.
Personally, I work in a fairly conservative industry. I'm an engineer, I work in an office, and when I go to client meetings, project interviews, public outreach meetings, and professional work events, the guys are in suits (mostly with ties) and the women are in similar attire (suits, pencil skirts w/ nice blouse, sheath or fit-and-flare dresses).
Go to Banana Republic or Ann Taylor's website and check out the work styles. That's my "work appropriate" attire.
Apparently my husband severely disagrees. And I found out we had drastically different opinions regarding the work appropriateness of dresses after I made the Sewaholic Davie Dress in a black knit ponte that is both so wonderful to sew and wear.
We argued for awhile about what is "work appropriate". I actually pulled up dresses online that are classified as "Work" on Ann Taylor and Banana Republic and he proceeded to disagree with some of the selections, which mind you, look very similar to the Davie Dress in concept.
I'm not sure he'll ever come to my side. He works in a very casual environment. I told him to ask some of his female coworkers for their opinions, but I'm not sure he will. He wants to be right. I want to be right. So we'll agree to disagree
So let's talk about the Sewaholic Davie Dress. I almost didn't buy this pattern because there are hardly any reviews online. Have people not been making this dress? Or is everyone as terrible a sewing blogger as I am? Once I realized how few reviews there were I was determined to blog about it so other people who may be on the fence will have more feedback.
One useful review of the Davie Dress I found was this one by 'Veronica Darling'. It looks like the exact opposite of mine, so at least you can see how the pattern can be transformed greatly depending on fabric and print. There were a couple others I found and most had issues with a low armhole on the cap sleeve version and fabric pooling in the lower back. I made the sleeveless version in order to avoid the low armhole issue with the sleeve and I took a chance by not making a swayback adjustment, praying that it would be ok on me.
I used this beautiful ponte that I bought at Mood in LA. I can't remember the contents exactly, but if I recall correctly it's a polyester, rayon, spandex blend. (Seriously, get thee some, it's delightful to cut, sew, and wear!) I was specifically looking for something with spandex so it would recover well. I don't know the exact stretch %, but it seems to be enough for this dress. Although, I specifically was looking for a stretch fabric that was more on the stable side.
I first sewed a straight 6 because I looked at the finished measurements and saw that it aligned with a 34" bust (my bust size!). After I put the whole damn thing together and tried it on I realized that "HELLO, IT'S A KNIT DRESS! WHY DIDN'T I SIZE DOWN???" Thankfully I hadn't yet finished the armholes or neckline so I could still make some modifications fairly easily.
The Size 6 was ridiculously large on me. Since I had topstitched the center and side panels (and I was not going to undo all of that), I had to do hasty fitting modifications.
The armholes were really low on me, which is why I raised them by taking in the shoulder seams. This isn't the ideal fix, but it sorta works, although the neckline is much higher. Next time I'll have to shorten the bodice at some point between the shoulder and bust to raise the armhole.
Next time I'll also do a small swayback adjustment as there's some fabric pooling in my lower back, but it's not too bad. Overall, I really like this pattern. It's really quick to cut and sew. The most time consuming part was the top-stitching. If I use a lighterweight fabric next time I may just serge the whole thing and omit the top-stitching. That would make for a ridiculously quick make. Also, I created my own bias binding and used it for the armholes and neckline so that added some time to finish.
The only thing that had me scratching my head was the skirt length. I pinned up the hem evenly all around the skirt then tried it on. The skirt was noticeably higher at the sides than at the center front and back. I measured the side panel pattern pieces along the side seam from the approximate waistline to the hem and found out the side seam was almost 2" shorter than the center front and back skirt pieces.
Was this intentional? Would you really want the skirt higher at the sides than the center? It didn't make sense to me.....I ultimately decided to hem the dress so the skirt pieces would be the same length all around when measured from my waist to the hem. Have you made this dress? Is your hem even all around? Have you made a skirt before where it was shorter at the sides than in the centers? It was really late at night when I was putting the final touches on this dress, so it's possible I was doing something wrong or measured incorrectly.
And in terms of style, do you think this dress is work appropriate? Or is too fancy and should only be worn at cocktail hour or at a wedding? I've actually already worn it to work. I was in charge of planning a luncheon for a professional organization and they always bring up the person in charge at the end of the event to thank the speakers so I wanted to look nice in front of 200+ people. The ladies who attend usually always look so nice in dresses and I was getting tired of always wearing pants suits. By the way, how did I end up planning events while being in the engineering industry???? I thought I left those days behind me in college :)
Have you made the Davie Dress yet? What modifications did you make? I'm thinking of going down a size or two and then grading out at the waist since I know a Size 6 waist is just perfecto on me. Now I'm wondering, how can make minor changes to this pattern so I can make 10 more but not make it obvious I'm wearing the same dress?
Personally, I work in a fairly conservative industry. I'm an engineer, I work in an office, and when I go to client meetings, project interviews, public outreach meetings, and professional work events, the guys are in suits (mostly with ties) and the women are in similar attire (suits, pencil skirts w/ nice blouse, sheath or fit-and-flare dresses).
Go to Banana Republic or Ann Taylor's website and check out the work styles. That's my "work appropriate" attire.
Apparently my husband severely disagrees. And I found out we had drastically different opinions regarding the work appropriateness of dresses after I made the Sewaholic Davie Dress in a black knit ponte that is both so wonderful to sew and wear.
We argued for awhile about what is "work appropriate". I actually pulled up dresses online that are classified as "Work" on Ann Taylor and Banana Republic and he proceeded to disagree with some of the selections, which mind you, look very similar to the Davie Dress in concept.
I'm not sure he'll ever come to my side. He works in a very casual environment. I told him to ask some of his female coworkers for their opinions, but I'm not sure he will. He wants to be right. I want to be right. So we'll agree to disagree
So let's talk about the Sewaholic Davie Dress. I almost didn't buy this pattern because there are hardly any reviews online. Have people not been making this dress? Or is everyone as terrible a sewing blogger as I am? Once I realized how few reviews there were I was determined to blog about it so other people who may be on the fence will have more feedback.
One useful review of the Davie Dress I found was this one by 'Veronica Darling'. It looks like the exact opposite of mine, so at least you can see how the pattern can be transformed greatly depending on fabric and print. There were a couple others I found and most had issues with a low armhole on the cap sleeve version and fabric pooling in the lower back. I made the sleeveless version in order to avoid the low armhole issue with the sleeve and I took a chance by not making a swayback adjustment, praying that it would be ok on me.
I used this beautiful ponte that I bought at Mood in LA. I can't remember the contents exactly, but if I recall correctly it's a polyester, rayon, spandex blend. (Seriously, get thee some, it's delightful to cut, sew, and wear!) I was specifically looking for something with spandex so it would recover well. I don't know the exact stretch %, but it seems to be enough for this dress. Although, I specifically was looking for a stretch fabric that was more on the stable side.
I first sewed a straight 6 because I looked at the finished measurements and saw that it aligned with a 34" bust (my bust size!). After I put the whole damn thing together and tried it on I realized that "HELLO, IT'S A KNIT DRESS! WHY DIDN'T I SIZE DOWN???" Thankfully I hadn't yet finished the armholes or neckline so I could still make some modifications fairly easily.
The Size 6 was ridiculously large on me. Since I had topstitched the center and side panels (and I was not going to undo all of that), I had to do hasty fitting modifications.
- Took in the shoulder seams by 1" (to raise the armhole)
- Took in the side seams by 1.25" at the underarm, grading to 0" at the waist and then back in again by 1" at the hem.
- Closed the keyhole 1" at the bottom
- Shorten skirt hem by at least 1"
The armholes were really low on me, which is why I raised them by taking in the shoulder seams. This isn't the ideal fix, but it sorta works, although the neckline is much higher. Next time I'll have to shorten the bodice at some point between the shoulder and bust to raise the armhole.
Next time I'll also do a small swayback adjustment as there's some fabric pooling in my lower back, but it's not too bad. Overall, I really like this pattern. It's really quick to cut and sew. The most time consuming part was the top-stitching. If I use a lighterweight fabric next time I may just serge the whole thing and omit the top-stitching. That would make for a ridiculously quick make. Also, I created my own bias binding and used it for the armholes and neckline so that added some time to finish.
The only thing that had me scratching my head was the skirt length. I pinned up the hem evenly all around the skirt then tried it on. The skirt was noticeably higher at the sides than at the center front and back. I measured the side panel pattern pieces along the side seam from the approximate waistline to the hem and found out the side seam was almost 2" shorter than the center front and back skirt pieces.
Was this intentional? Would you really want the skirt higher at the sides than the center? It didn't make sense to me.....I ultimately decided to hem the dress so the skirt pieces would be the same length all around when measured from my waist to the hem. Have you made this dress? Is your hem even all around? Have you made a skirt before where it was shorter at the sides than in the centers? It was really late at night when I was putting the final touches on this dress, so it's possible I was doing something wrong or measured incorrectly.
And in terms of style, do you think this dress is work appropriate? Or is too fancy and should only be worn at cocktail hour or at a wedding? I've actually already worn it to work. I was in charge of planning a luncheon for a professional organization and they always bring up the person in charge at the end of the event to thank the speakers so I wanted to look nice in front of 200+ people. The ladies who attend usually always look so nice in dresses and I was getting tired of always wearing pants suits. By the way, how did I end up planning events while being in the engineering industry???? I thought I left those days behind me in college :)
Have you made the Davie Dress yet? What modifications did you make? I'm thinking of going down a size or two and then grading out at the waist since I know a Size 6 waist is just perfecto on me. Now I'm wondering, how can make minor changes to this pattern so I can make 10 more but not make it obvious I'm wearing the same dress?
Add a jacket and this is ready for corporate america!
ReplyDeleteExactly! :)
DeleteThis is definitely work appropriate, the keyhole makes it so much more interesting!
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! I didn't think the keyhole would add much when I first saw the pattern. But it definitely adds something to the dress.
DeleteTotally work appropriate and way cute!! Anddddd we might have the same dress in the future. I bought some black fabric at Mood for a Davie and it may or may not be the same knit. So, twinsies!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I made this dress up in a lightweight jersey and had serious droopy armholes. I thought it might have been my fabric choice, so it's good to know that I wasn't totally crazy and making things up haha.
yay, twinsies!! Can't wait to see yours!
DeleteI saw the dress you posted on Instagram and was wondering how it turned out. Normally Sewaholic Patterns are spot-on in terms of fit requiring minimal fitting changes so I was surprised to see most people have had issues with the low/droopy armhole.