Let summer dress season commence!
No, really, please let warmer weather come soon so I can start wearing dresses instead of wool layers.
This is one of the latest from Seamwork, the Lyle dress.
The Lyle pattern is a somewhat cocoon-y tank dress with a boat neck, slightly cut-in shoulders and curved hem that forms what amount to essentially slits at the side hems to allow for movement.
The Lyle pattern is designed for medium weight knits with 50% stretch.
I used some jersey from my stash, originally purchased in Melbourne many years ago during an epic Boxing Day sale at Clear It, which sells deadstock fabric from Aussie designers (thanks to the Melbourne area sewists for recommending this shop to me!). It's a really nice jersey, with one-way stretch, definitely a bit of poly, but not too much, and a beautiful floral print.
Size-wise, since I am forever an in-betweeny and find myself between Seamwork's two charts (Misses and Curvy). I ended up cutting the smaller size, 16, to fit my bust, and grading out to somewhere between a 16 and 18 at the hip. I didn't print the size 18 since it's in a separate file, but rather just sort of guessed at what might be the 18 if the Misses block was graded out one more size. It worked a treat!
I love the fit at the armhole. Nice and snug, good bra coverage at the armpit. That said, because the shoulders are cut in slightly, I find it works better with my racerback bra than regular at the shoulders.
The Lyle pattern is super quick to sew, just a front and back with bands at the neck and armholes. The curved bottom is hemmed before sewing up the side seams.
I'm really happy with how my Lyle turned out! Great fit, incredibly comfortable, easily layerable.
