I bought the Lois dress pattern from Tessuti, geez has it been two years ago? Yes, yes it has. Finally made this up in summer of 2019. And, I gotta say I have words. I love this look and silhouette. I have narrow shoulders so a dropped shoulder I think is attractive on me and balances my shoulders and hips out. The green and black floral is from Colorado Fabrics (three years ago?) and I underlined it with grey cotton silk I bought off of Ebay (which I highly recommend).

I cut out an 8 on the top and a 12 for the hip area, all based on the measurements of the guide sheet. I noticed a lot of people who have made this dress did note the generous sizing. Some were able to put the dress on without a zipper. I was surprised by the 3 sizes too big generous sizing though.

I also did not like the hip darts and butt seams in the back. There are no side seams but darts, nor a traditional back piece. The darts on the hips just don’t work for me and they kept jutting out, drawing more width to the hips, which I don’t like either.  After I got the whole dress down per the directions I did not like it one bit. I really wanted to salvage the print, I loved the fabric but was almost ready to call it quits on the dress. I made a last attempt at fixing it and simply cut up both sides and created side seams, thus eliminating the darts. Sized down at least two sizes and did not put on the sleeve bands. All in all, I think it works.

Lois redrafted

The bottom hem area on the front and back was all wonky due to my serger eating a large swath of fabric. So, I pieced together some salvaged scraps and made do. Haha! If you were to look closely at this dress it really is a mess. BUT, I love it so!

However, I’m just not a fan of the Tessuti pattern. So, I made another pattern from a vintage Simplicity #6667. You’ll notice the set-in-sleeves, modesty panel (how adorable) and ruffled neck. I wanted an almost exact replica of the Tessuti. Which this pattern is with a few exceptions. What I did was convert the set-in-sleeves to a dropped shoulder sleeve, eliminated the ruffle and panel, cut the front on the fold and VIOLA! A perfect fit dress with side seams. I may put in a bust side dart for more fit, but for now, I like it as is.

I want to add that I’m really happy with these photos. I find photo-taking laborious and all the negative self-talk comes out when I look at pictures of myself.

I vowed not to take to much time with these and ended up spending about 20 minutes on photos. I finally found a nice place in my house with decent lightning and that’s going to be that. No more time spent trying to look perfect.

Here are pre-staging photos. Notice my attempt at Barbie feet.  Haha! Don’t I look 10 feet tall?