Thursday, December 29, 2016

Cashmerette Turner Dress Reveal and Thoughts


I finished my first go with the Cashmerette Turner dress a few days ago, and I have some thoughts. (Suprised? Hah.) My overall opinion is that it's a great, easy-to-sew dress pattern for those of us with some fluff and boobage. Especially those of us with fluff and boobage who've been eyeing the Kitschy-Koo Lady Skater dress for a long while without pulling the trigger. I'm glad I waited.


This is the finished dress. The neckline looks better on Zillie, which is my fault for being lazy in the process, and which I'll get into more below.


This is how I'll probably wear it most days, since it's chilly in the office and I like a pop of color with black and white. You're getting from-the-top-of-the-mountain shots since instead of dragging my tripod outside for pics, I dragged Alex and, well, he's taller than the tripod.


Here's the finished dress on its own (well, on me), with no cardi camouflage for my lumpy bits. :-)


And the rear view. No back wrinkles. I believe there's a small sway back alteration built into the pattern. If so, good on ya Cashmerette!


Lots of swing in the skirt, which I like. A lot. With my arms going backward, I've got a slight Hunchback of Notre Dame thing going on. Nice.

So, let's get into the nitty-gritty of the pattern itself and my opinions on it. Because I do have a few. I hope they are taken as honest and constructive criticism because that's how I roll. Remember, my overall opinion is that it's a great dress. And although I've been a Cashmerette tester and have received free patterns in the past, I didn't test this dress at all and I wasn't given the pattern. Disclaimers out of the way, OK, here we go.

I don't have extremely narrow shoulders but they are on the narrow side. (And very square.) Cashmerette's draft is for a much wider shoulder than mine. And less sloped than most patterns (less sloped for me is good).

I'm not a big fan of the instructions for choosing size. I get (and appreciate) that you should choose by your full bust since these patterns are drafted for larger busts, but I think the instruction doesn't go far enough. There are other things going on in the bodice area beside boobs. So, if you already know you have narrow shoulders, size down for the upper bodice. If you're unsure, make a muslin. I believe Cashmerette are at least consistent, so if you need narrower in one, you're going to need narrower in all.


Above is my first go at the bodice. Using the instructions, I chose the size which was closest to my bust and waist measurements. This put me in the 18. I went up a cup size from my actual measurement since I knew the boob area is drafted with negative ease and I didn't want a sausage casing. :-) The resulting shoulders are definitely much too wide on me. If you look carefully, you can see my nude-colored bra strap on your left. The other strap isn't showing only because my arm is lifted to take the pic and the fabric moved. And while I don't mind some cleavage now and then, I don't like it at work and this was to be a office-bound dress. It's a pretty and flattering neckline, just not work appropriate for me.


Here's the first bodice on Zillie (with a past skirt still on her below). Size 18 E/F.


Here's the second bodice with the neckline raised (sigh, too much) and narrowed. Size 16 E/F blended to an 18 at waist and below. My "sweet spot" for the neckline depth on the next make will be somewhere in the middle. The width, however, is now perfect.


My neckline alterations. I added about an inch to the width to narrow the neckline opening. Even going all the way to the 12's stock width would still be too wide on me. I want those straps covered dammit. :-) I raised the vee about two inches. Which is about an inch too much in the final dress. I was counting on the weight of the skirt pulling the bodice down somewhat but it really didn't. I could've futzed with the neckline before finishing the waist seam, but laziness won. Who wants to pick out understitching after all? I'll live with this neckline and probably add a bright and pretty scarf to visually lower the focus.


Two things I want to point out here (besides the dog hair). One you can see in the photo above, and one you can't. First, as you can see above, the shoulder join results in a much sharper angle than the curve I created with my added tissue. If you leave it as-is without smoothing, be sure to trim your seam allowances well in this area so the fabric turns and lays nicely. Otherwise, you're going to get puckers. My 2 cents is to just make it a smoother curve before you cut your fabric. I'm not really a fan of these angular front/back neckline joins.

Second, let's talk about the waist seam. I've seen many comments out on the interwebs about how high the waist seam is on this dress. So I thought I'd outsmart myself and just add 1/2" to it when I was cutting the bodice pieces. I sewed Bodice 2 to the skirt and tried it on. You know where this is going, right? Yeah. I unpicked the skirt (and my little pass card loop which you can't see in any of the pics but which is there and I love it), cut off that 1/2" and reattached the skirt. And it's now at a much more flattering spot for me and lets the skirt skim the lumps. It's amazing how much difference 1/2" can make. So much for outsmarting myself. Unless you're very long-waisted and/or tall, you're probably going to want the seam as drafted. But at the very least, if you do add to it, BASTE the skirt on and check. The seam will hit a different spot with the weight of the skirt.

Oh, a third. I bought the downloadable PDF version. I just want to note that it's not a paper pig and the pieces went together quickly and accurately. I'm on Team PDF. I love me some instant gratification, especially when I can print at work. And even trim the pages during down time. Shhhh. I didn't say that. :-)


Here's the completed dress inside-out. As you can see, the bodice is fully lined. Which I like and which makes finishing the neckline easy-peasy. However, there are a few things in the instructions for this which I don't like. First, you are instructed to trim 1/8" from the lining neckline before you sew the shoulder seams (to allow for turn of cloth and keeping the seam to the inside). Nope. The pieces aren't going to line up as well if you trim before sewing. Sew the shoulder seams and THEN trim the 1/8" from the lining neckline edge. It just works better. Next quiggle: you're instructed to sew the lining and outer necklines together and then clip the vee. OK. But ... you really should add a small piece of fusible interfacing to the vee area before you clip. At least I would. And did. I want a bit of added stability to my clippage.


And, finally, you are instructed to understitch at 1/4". Nope, it should be 1/8", or less, as shown above. (Jenny of Cashmerette confirmed on the sew-along pages that this is, indeed, a typo.)


The hem is 1.5". Love a deep hem on knits. I didn't add or remove anything from the length of the skirt and turned a generous 1.5" hem. The finished dress hits just below my kneecap. I'm 5'5".


The instructions have you sew the waist seam and add clear elastic while you're doing so. Eh. Clear elastic is a pain on its best day. Feel free to sew swear-free and use regular elastic (The instructions tell you this, but the supply list doesn't. Just remember to add a seam allowance to your elastic since the instructions don't.). Or, do like me and omit elastic altogether. I sewed the seam with a very, very slight zigzag and then used a 4-thread overcast with my serger very close to the seam stitching. (See above.) That waist ain't going nowheres.


More insides. The sleeve hems are 1". Which is a good amount IMO.

Other pattern criticisms:
1. There are no body landmark markings. Such as bust point, waist, etc. Major boo.
2. There is no finished length given. Regular boo.
3. There are no neckline variations. Easy enough to DIY, and Jenny has created a blog page with instructions, but still, it would've been so much nicer to have variations drawn on the pattern, especially at this price point.
4. And pockets. There really should be a pocket option. Again, I can DIY, but I shouldn't have to.

As I said, overall I think the dress is a winner and I'll definitely make it again. It's flattering. Love, love the in-built FBA. Love the fast sew. Love the twirl! I'll probably use the skirt pieces to make an actual skirt, since they're perfect and now ready to go.

Yes, I know I promised a post on pattern ease. Still coming, but blog laziness is a tough mother.

Happy New Year!

34 comments:

  1. GREAT review Debbie. Thanks! I've eyed this pattern myself. Super helpful.

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    1. Thanks Renee! Hope yours and Jordan's holidays have been/are/will be fun!

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  2. Great pattern feedback! (and makes me realise several things about my own construction on this pattern: in the 6months since testing, I forgot about the trimming, the understitching, AND the 1/5" hem! Oh well, worked fine on the fly.) I totally agree that the neckline is likely to be NSFW, especially on short people like me. I think your dress turned out very nicely - worth the work you put into it! :)

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    1. Thank Gillian. I'm nothing if not a feedbacker. Haha!

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  3. Thanks for sharing your review Debbie! I'm going to treat this as "post launch tester feedback" and make some updates in the instructions next time it's printed :D

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    1. Hah. Post launch tester. Hope it helps. As I said, overall a great pattern. I'm just a nitpicker aka copy editor.

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  4. Very nice! Just wondering about the built in forward shoulder adjustment. I've been put off Jenny's patterns after I tried the Appleton and found the shoulders were an inch and a half too far forward on me - I remember you commenting on the forward shoulder when you made it. How did you find the shoulder placement on the Turner and Concord?

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    1. Good question. I didn't find the shoulder to be drafted forward on the Turner. I think it's more of a problem on the Appleton because of the amount of negative ease (for lack of a better term) built into the no gape neckline.

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    2. Thanks for that, I'll dust off my Concord pattern and see how it goes. I wasn't too sure about the Turner, but having seen yours I might be tempted to 'invest' in the pattern...

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  5. First, I love your verson of this - high neckline and all! This is on my cutting table to sew soon so thanks for a thorough review.

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  6. I love it! I always have problems with the back width on patterns and clothes I buy, because my back is narrow. I usually take the width out of the center seam, if there is one. Your thorough review of this pattern is great.

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  7. I love the way the dress looks on you! I appreciate all of your quibble comments because they let me know WHY you quibbled. Most especially, I love your comment on pdf patterns. I may never sew knits happily, but I'm less terrified than I used to be. You are fearless, and do such lovely work.

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    1. Thanks so much! I'm not really fearless but, really, it's only fabric and time. The world isn't going to pause if/when I need up a seeing project. 😄

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  8. A very pretty and flattering dress, Debbie! Once again, you give such thorough, careful feedback.

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  9. Awesome, thanks heaps for the review. I've been hesitating to hit the buy button on this pattern but I'm gonna get it now, the little issues aren't too much and at least I know about them before I cut it out!

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    1. Thanks Suzy. I think you'll like the pattern and it will look great on you. The issues I mentioned aren't showstopper by any means.

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  10. Thank you for this review - I'm about to cut it out and as I've discovered that I have narrow, sloping shoudlers AND a narrow back AND a short waist (basically, I have a teeny torso... I'm 5'8"! I never knew! Learning to sew has been a revelation) - this review is going to help me immensely. I know from the Concord that I'll have to narrow the shoulders, narrow the back, and remove some length from the part between the shoulder and the bust apex, but I have to do that for almost every bodice pattern, and it's nice knowing I won't have to do a FBA or grade up for my stomach fat. I have some merino jersey I've been saving and I think if I muslin this right I can have some really nice winter dresses. Thank you!
    Thank you!

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  11. Great review. Thanks for keeping it real!

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  12. This is SUCH a cute dress on you! I always love your candid reviews. Keep it up!

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  13. Love your dress. Great choice of fabric too. Very nice.

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  14. This looks very cute on you. I am about to embark on it myself so thank you for such a great review and your honesty.

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  15. The dress looks great on you! I like it with and without the cardigan. Great review

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  16. I love your blog, I always check it for updates. This is a great dress and looks so good on you. Thank you for posting such detailed reviews, how-to's, and ideas in your posts.

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  17. Wow, great comprehensive review, thanks! I think I'm going to go ahead and order it. I'll try to remember to check back here for your tips before I sew. I have a narrow back & shoulders, too...maybe it would be an idea to cut the smaller size for the back bodice? I've made the Colette dress that's similar, but the neck is way too wide and the gathered skirt is not very flattering on my apple belly. I hate to pay for a similar pattern with the exchange rate, but I think Jenny's dress will suit my figure better.

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  18. I love your reviews! You are honest and helpful and this is a great review. It also looks great on you. Definitely a great basic dress.

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  19. Excellent review. Agree with all your points, especially about lack pattern markings, bust point etc. I've just ordered the paper pattern but I'm only 5' tall and I already know I'm going to have to do a narrow shoulder adjustment etc. I think the waist might be ok if the Appleton is anything to go by LOL.

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  20. Yes, indeedy! Where are you? I hope everything is okay and life is being good to you.

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  21. I also miss you! Normally besides sewing stuff you post pictures of your dogs or when you see your kids. Hope all is well.

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Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

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