Spotty Tiramisu

Last week, in the days heading up to The Big Blog Meet Up, I got chatting to some sewcialists (sewist + social) on twitter and got convinced that I needed to get a new pattern – Steph C’s Tiramisu dress. I haven’t made a jersey dress for ages (years?) so it was a good job we were off to do some fabric shopping.

It is a mock wrap top with a half-circle skirt, but the thing that makes it a bit more special is the sizing. You choose the bodice based on your high-bust measurement and then choose the cup-size, so you don’t get any indecent gaping. Also, the waistband is only half-drawn; you join the dots between your bodice and waist size to get a perfect fit! Genius!

I made the 40D (D is the largest cup size and they are not based on bra sizes) bodice and the fit was pretty good without a FBA. The pattern has points indicated for fitting as you sew, which would be so helpful for beginner sewists. There is also lots of help and advice online and one of the things mentioned was that the jersey will pull with the weight of the skirt, so when fitting the bodice I didn’t worry too much. With the skirt added, the bodice didn’t pull down quite enough so on the next version I will add have added a couple of inches to the bodice (and removed this from the waist band).

Yup, there will definitely be more of this pattern to come. I wore it to work and got lots of compliments (maybe fished for as I swished my skirt!). As soon as I put the finished dress on I swished and twirled around – how have I never had a (half)circle skirt before?! I really love the shape of the half-circle skirt -smooth round the waist with a lovely amount of drape and fullness – so I may have to try a woven circle skirt before the summer.