The E.S.P wonderdress

HELLOOO

It’s been a month since I posted here last, huge apologies. I’ve been working all hours on (amongst other things) a majorly exciting project at work crowdsourcing LGBTQ heritage. If you are so inclined, read about it here and (long shot!) if you know of any interesting queer historical places, map them on our interactive map here!

But enough of that, back to sewing. I am now getting back to having some stitching time in the evenings, and I am delighted to say, I have been using it very well indeed. I had been having some instagram chats with the wonderful Decades of Style about the cost of postage to the UK because I so desperately wanted their Given a Chance Dress but at the time shipping was extremely expensive. When they told me they had found a cheaper shipper (is that the right word?!) who could post as many patterns as I wanted at a flat rate of $15 dollars, I ordered the Given a Chance dress, and thought I might as well order the E.S.P pattern too because I had seen Tanya at Mrs Hughes make some really glorious versions and wanted some of that action for myself.

When the patterns arrived I fully intended on making the Given a Chance dress first and had been musing on various different yoke/dress combos and then I met my mum for dinner after work. She had made the classic mistake of having a bit of time to kill, and popping into the haberdashery department of John Lewis. Despite generally being a bit horrified by the size of my fabric stash she found a fabric she couldn’t resist and so kindly bought me 3m of this beauty…..

You might not be able to see it here but the flowers are actually a very pale pink and it’s gorgeous. I’m not sure what kind of fabric it is, some kind of cotton blend with  both body and drape, and it’s brilliant. I knew it had to be an E.S.P. And so it became this….

Musing on my stash never getting any smaller

The biggest size was bust 46″ and waist 40″ with little wearing ease. My full bust is 51″ and my waist 45″ so I did the rarest of rare things and made a muslin of the bodice. This told me I needed to add a bit of length to the bodice and a 1 inch FBA. I did not incorporate this into the darts so it also added 2 inches to the waist.I also graded out the waist by another 3 inches at the side seams, and added an inch to each skirt piece. IT WORKED! I cannot believe it!

My final bodice piece and a sneak peek of the fabric I used for ESP number 2

The legendary muslin

Once muslined, this pattern went together like a dream. It’s really well drafted.

Nice work me on the zip and nice work wind on the swoosh

The neck is finished with facings which I don’t really like but are necessary for this nice crisp square neckline and they do go in quite easily. I did slightly over clip my corners though and have to hand stitch a hole up, so don’t be too overzealous!

The neckline is really high, so if you are bothered about things around your neck you might want to lower it a bit. There is a great tutorial on Gmariesews  who asked the lovely Decades of Style about how to do this. I only found out about it after I had made a VERY bodgy attempt to lower the neckline on the second version, so will use these instructions on E.S.P. number 3. Yes I do like it that much. It’s supremely comfortable, is a really stylish slightly loose but flattering silhouette, and is great for showing off prints and for using quilting cottons with. I think this is definitely my first tried and true pattern and I am SO happy about it! I’ll leave you with a few more pics of me swishing around merrily in it.

P.S, I obviously didn’t press the bust darts properly before my ‘modelling’, they really aren’t that prominent in real life, I promise!