Wow, I was in love with this Lisette dress, Butterick 6168, the second I saw it! Those pleats: yes. That v-neck/cross-over bodice: yes. The cut-out: maybe. I was intrigued...
I was planning to cut out the dress this weekend and then join the Lisette sewalong for this dress next week. But once I started sewing, I was pretty jazzed about it and just kept sewing until it was done. I was able to wear it out for dinner later that evening! I am really happy with it, cut-out and all.
The fabric is some Cloud 9 organic quilting cotton I've had in my stash for a while now- it's part of the microMod collection from Green Bee Design. It reads grey from afar in these photos, but it's really black with white shapes and teal dots. Weight-wise, the quilting cotton worked just fine for this pattern, giving the pleats a bit of structure, but I think you could also successfully use something with much more drape. Check out the fabric inspiration post on Lisette.
Changes I made: Not many! The fit is pretty great on me straight out of envelope- I cut out my normal Butterick size (which is to say about 2 sizes down from what the envelope tells me to cut out based on my bust measurement) and the shape seemed to work for me. I'm really happy with the bodice fit, particularly in the back, where I typically have some swayback-type issues.
Notes:
I did make the sleeves just slightly longer by using a narrower seam allowance when sewing them together (it's a fully lined sleeve). Also, I had some trouble easing the sleeves in. For the life of me, I couldn't get them to fit without a ton of accidental gathers, so I decided to purposefully put some tucks in the sleeves to mirror the bodice tucks.
One complaint about the pattern is how heavily gathered the skirt it right in the center front. The gathers are really concentrated there and I find it's causing a teeny bit of faux-pregnancy/just ate a giant burrito belly. Good news is: you can eat a giant burrito in this dress because it's more of an empire cut.
I don't think the back neckline finishing method is my favorite: there is a facing in the front, but a bias strip in the back. Mine got a bit lumpy at the shoulder and the top of the zipper seems unfinished on the inside (the instructions just have you fold the extra zipper tape down onto itself). It would be really easy to just draft a quick back neck facing, though.
I topstitched the seam between the bodice and skirt. The instructions say to press the seam upwards, but I found it wouldn't stay up without help.
That sounds like a lot of "notes," but they are all pretty minor and I am super pumped about this new dress! I think it would be great in a solid color to highlight the pattern details...
Have you made this pattern? Planning on it? Joining the sewalong?
UPDATE: in which I share some GIFs of myself that indicate a) how hard it is to get nice, friendly, happy-looking blog pics when you have resting bitch face and b) how damn hot it is in Bangkok right now- we were on our balcony for literally 3 minutes and I was sweaty enough to have my hair stick to my face:
UPDATE: in which I share some GIFs of myself that indicate a) how hard it is to get nice, friendly, happy-looking blog pics when you have resting bitch face and b) how damn hot it is in Bangkok right now- we were on our balcony for literally 3 minutes and I was sweaty enough to have my hair stick to my face: