Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Things I've Sewn Lately: Victory Patterns Lola

 Greg and I finally made it out to Seattle. Though the weather has been a bit rainy today, the sun made a brief appearance late in the afternoon and we were able to snap a few photos of my Victory Patterns Lola dress.


The fabric, like my red Lady Skater, came from Girl Charlee. This fabric is actually why I placed an order in the first place. It's a Primp-brand sweatshirt fleece with a mouse print. And the mice have hearts for eyes. I swoon. 

This is the absolute softest fabric and it was really inexpensive (I think they've sold out, sadly, because I no longer see it on their website.) I bought two yards without a project in mind -- which I almost never do -- but inspiration came when I started seeing Lolas popping up in different blogs. 


I opted to buy Lola as a PDF and I will say it was super easy to assemble. The pieces joined together much more easily than more PDF patterns I've used. And the construction method and style lines remind me a lot of my beloved avocado hoodie, so the process seemed really familiar. I always think princess seaming is so flattering. Sweatshirt dresses I've owned in the past have been very boxy, so it's nice to have one with a little shape. 

There is an underbust seam, which made for an easy way to grade the sizes. I cut a four in the top and an eight at the bottom. All the bottom pieces are graded from a six at the waist to an eight at the bottom to accommodate my pear-shapedness.  


The dress has enormous pockets, which can only ever be a bonus in my book. I was worried about drawing attention to the aforementioned pear-shapedness, but instead of leaving the pockets baggier at the top, as they're supposed to be, I left them to mirror the shape of the bottom of the dress. The fabric is stretchy, though, so I can still put my hands in my pockets. 


The pattern directs you to use ribbing for the hemline, neckline and sleeve bands, but I just used self bands -- I'm not a huge ribbing fan, to be honest. 


The dress is super warm and comfortable, and, of course, wearable with my Jalie leggings, which seems to be a theme in my sewing this winter. 


I sewed the majority of the dress on the serger and did a little top-stitching with a ballpoint needle and wooly nylon thread I bought at Sil Thread in NYC on my last trip there.


In case you were wondering about the backdrop for these photos and the "interesting" lighting, we took these pictures with the Fremont Troll in Seattle (he lives under a bridge.)


We had a nice chat. ;-)

And as a bonus, Mr. Troll lives near a brewery Greg likes, so Greg got a growler of beer to share with his sister!


If you've made a Lola dress, share it in the comments -- I'd love to see some more takes on this. I feel like there has to be a cute way to turn it into a regular (non-dress) sweatshirt, right?

No comments:

Post a Comment