Lisette Diplomat Dress

I sewed something for me!  The vast majority of my sewing tends to be for the clever girl or for gifts, so I have been determined this summer to make some things for me.  My first accomplishment is this dress!  It is a Lisette pattern, the Diplomat Dress, and you can find it as Simplicity 1878.  JoAnns recently had a sale with all Simplicity patterns for $1.99 so I stocked up on some of the Lisette patterns!  You just can't beat that price!  Lisette patterns are made by the same company/designers that make Oliver + S patterns for kids.  Those are my very favorite kids clothing patterns, so I was super-thrilled when they came out with an adult line!

These patterns are sized like most sewing patterns, in that the size you wear in a store is NOT AT ALL what you would make.  It is totally crazy and plays a bit with your self image but you just have to get over that if you are going to sew for yourself.

So here is my Diplomat Dress.  I used an organic cotton I purchased from Sew Mama Sew.  I have never used organic cotton and it is nice and soft and washes well.  I made style A, with the length of style B.  According to my dimensions, I made the size that should have been perfect (a 14) but it ended up gigantic.  So I took it in quite a bit and now it works fine.   It is still a bit bigger than I might prefer in the neckline/shoulders but not enough to be a problem at all.  It just lets me know that I could have probably made a 12, so I may do the 12 in the next pattern and hope they all run a bit big...  We'll see.


My changes:
There are darts in the back for fitting, and once you sew the darts the back is smaller than the front along the length of the darts.  To take in the front, I laid the back on top of the front, centered, and used the edge of the back as the edge for gauging the seam allowance.  Does this make sense?  The front fabric was sticking out on both sides further than the back and I cut the front to match the back.  I also made the arm holes larger by about 1 inch on the bottom.  I just free-hand drew in a line that took the arm hole down about 1 inch and cut.  Then when I sewed the arm band circle, I used a 1/2 inch seam allowance and it fit perfectly.  Yeah!

A close-up of the top part.

It is hard to tell, but there is a seam along the bust and one that goes down the front of the dress.

Overall I am very pleased with this dress.  It is super comfortable and a great summer dress.  It is slimming (though you can't tell that from the photo!) and would probably be more so had I made the smaller size.  The style B length is great for me and I like the options to add sleeves and make a dress for the fall.  I think the neckline and seam detailing make the dress flattering and more "store-bought" looking.

On to more projects!!