Cold Shoulder Trapeze Dress – Simplicity Pattern 8383 Review

Misses’ Trapeze Dress with Neckline and Sleeve Variations:

Pattern Description:

This is knit trapeze dress pattern with a variety of cold shoulder looks or a sleeveless option. All are sized for stretch knits only. Views A and B have round neckline and are pull-over while Views C and D have a mock turtleneck with an invisible zipper.

I chose dress View A/B and used the flutter sleeves from View D. I cut a size 10 because the bottom of this dress is pretty roomy and it’s made of a knit so there was stretch room in the top. Here is the final product:

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, I think so.

Were the instructions easy to follow? The instructions are very straight forward. There were a couple of places where they mention hemming or folding and leaving the raw edges unfinished. I serged the edges when I could to make it a little more finished. I also used a twin needle to finish the hem.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I liked that the pattern was for a stylish off the shoulder dress. I disliked that the dress was a little tent-like on the bottom.

Fabric Used: Black ponte roma solid knit from Joann’s Fabrics.

http://www.joann.com/sew-classic-knits-ponte-roma-solids-many-colors/xprd728576.html

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I did sleeve version (D) on dress style (A)/(B). I read in other people’s reviews that the dress was very short. Accordingly, I added three inches to the length when I cut it out. In the end, I removed the three inches because the dress is basically a sack with a high neck. I felt like it needed to be short in order to be more fashionable.

Would you sew it again? Yes, I have already sewn the version (B) with the elastic in the sleeves. Here are the pictures for that one –

As you can see, attaching the sleeves to the dress for style B resulted in slightly uneven sleeves. I would have ripped them out and tried again but this fabric was so thin that ripping the threads result in small holes in the fabric. I didn’t want the dress to be a total loss so I decided to live with it!

HELPFUL TIP: When sewing with a thinner knit I highly recommend using some kind of stabilizer to maintain the shape around the neckline and arm holes. This pattern calls for a bias strip of fabric to be added in some places like the neckline and parts of the sleeve and just narrow hemming in other portions of the arm holes. To prevent the garment from loosing shape in those places, I interfaced the bias strips in the neckline and arm holes and the narrow hem in the arm holes with Pellon Knit and stable strips.

Knit-N-Stable Tape-1″X10yd

I’ve seen other techniques where people use Dritz Stay Tape – the problem with that is the stay tape is not stretchy. If you want to maintain the stretch of your garment in places that are prone to curve out then I highly recommend fusible knit n stable tape. It’s easy to use because you just iron it on. I didn’t use it in the black knit dress but I did find I needed it in the orange printed knit dress.

Conclusion: Good dress pattern. The loose-fitting style of this dress makes it easy to fit without a lot of custom tailoring. I really like the sleeve options. I’d probably try View A next, but I’m not sure how many cold shoulder dresses one girl needs!

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