Hurrah, another Cashmerette pattern!
Jenny describes the Washington dress as "mixing the comfort of a knit bodice with the fabric possibilities of a woven skirt" and notes that it "gives you the freedom to play with colors and textures." I'd say that's a pretty apt description! A knit bodice, knit yoke and woven skirt allow for all sorts of mixing and matching and colorblocking and stash busting. Good stuff!
Note: I was a tester for this pattern, so I received the pattern for free, but all opinions about the pattern are my own.
Speaking of testing, although I was a tester, this is not the tester version, this is the final version. When testing for Jenny, I pulled the rookiest of all rookie moves: I printed out the PDF pattern without measuring the little square thingy, sewed up the whole dress, found it to be enormous and then sent an email to Jenny all like, "Umm, the pattern runs a little big?"
Yeah, turns out I had not printed it actual size, but rather 20 percent bigger all around. Haaaaaaa... face palm. I have never done that before, and the self-imposed shame I have felt since ensures that I will never again make a dress that is 20 percent too big due to a printing mistake! I ended up cutting the final version from my enormous tester fail version.
Anywho, back to the Washington dress... mine is made from some green cotton jersey I bought ages ago on Girl Charlee. I love the color, but think it might be a bit lightweight for the bodice of the Washington. Next time I'll go with something a bit thicker so it's not so "Hey! There's my bra!"
My yoke is black ponte and my skirt some pretty floral quilting cotton from Belleboo here in Bangkok. If you participated in #bpsewvember on Instagram, you might remember it from my "Oh no!" post- when I was recutting my giant tester version to make this dress, I accidentally cut a hole right in the center of the front skirt piece... luckily I had enough fabric leftover to cut another!
Once I made Washington in the right size: happiness! What a cute pattern! Comfy knit on top, a lovely a-line woven skirt, interesting lines and waistline flexibility as a result of the yoke. A winner, for sure!
I feel like the Washington Dress is an extremely wearable dress that can go casual or more formal depending on your fabric choice. Also, it's a really simple, quick make; no closures, no complicated techniques. If you can make a t-shirt, you can make this dress in a few hours. I made mine almost entirely on my serger. Good stuff.
