22 April 2016

A Denim Yoyo Dress

Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some peeks of this dress while I was making it. It's the Yoyo dress pattern from NZ-based Papercut Patterns, which I bought from UK stockist Sewbox. As soon as I saw the pattern, I knew I wanted to make a denim version (of course) to layer over stripey tops (naturally). And I love how it turned out!

Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons
Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons
Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons
Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons

The pattern has some really cute details - I love the exposed zip front opening and little triangular opening at the bottom. I made a toile first, which allowed me to make a few tweaks to my preference - for example, fitting the bodice to better suit my shape (I didn't want to make it too tight though, as I want to be able to layer the dress over knitwear too) and raising the armholes to hide my bra in case I want to wear this on its own in the Summer. 

I also scooped out the shape of the neckline a little. The original design has more of a V neckline with wider shoulders, style lines which work really well with the other triangular elements of the design, but which I didn't think suited me.

Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons
Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons
Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons

This is one of those makes where the inside is as pretty as the outside. It's finished with a facing, which I decided to trim with gold sparkly bias binding that I bought at Anna Ka Bazaar on the Paris sewing lovers trip. Shame you can't really see how sparkly it is in the photos - it's disco!!

I really love this dress, and have been getting quite a bit of wear out of it. If you make it, a little tip for you - when you're topstitching the facing to the dress, sew it with the facing on top. I made the mistake of sewing it with the dress on top as I wanted to see where the topstitching was going on the right side, which resulted in a bit of diagonal rippling. It's not a massive deal - you can see the ripples in the photos, but they aren't that obvious in real life. But had I sewn it with the facing on top, the interfacing would have stabilised the layers and fed them through the machine at the same time so that the dress one didn't get pulled diagonally like that. Learn from my mistake! (You're welcome.)

Denim YoYo Dress - Tilly and the Buttons

Ooh and the pattern also includes a skirt variation. Think I'll have to make that at some point too! Have you made this pattern? What fabric did you use?