Oh how excited I was (Feb. 2018) … my first ever participation in a sewing pattern test and it hardly couldn’t get any better: I was allowed to test a multi-cup size dress sewing pattern by Jennifer Lauren Handmade. Published today on 07/03/2018 named: The Raine Dress
And it was really hard to wait for so long to be allowed to show you my version of this dress. But now it’s finally time!
Although independent feedback was asked for and I have sewn this dress with fabric I have bought on my own expense, I got this “test” sewing pattern for free, so this might be some kind of “advertising” and I want to point this out here. You never know… 😉
Such a test serves one goal: To be able to make final optimizations on a sewing pattern before it gets published. To test a sewing pattern the maker/publisher hands out the sewing pattern to suitable testers for each size and wants independent feedback on sewing instructions, fit & more, to make the final corrections according to their feeback.
But lets go to the test now:
The most exciting thing about this test was that I didn’t know exactly – at the time only drawings of the dress existed and no finished version – how the dress is supposed to look and fit. So it was a project which I sewed completely according to the given instructions without really knowing how the dress will turn out. That was a lot of fun!
I really liked the pattern and the instruction, everything was easy to understand and to implement. The overall fit – I’ve sewn a size 8 with a D-Cup – is great. But since I am more an E-Cup and have quite dominant shoulders, I had to make 2 small adjustments for my final dress. However, these are changes that I always have to do for MY body (if sewing with woven fabrics), so don’t worry, if I can normally buy clothes off the pege, you should not be affected by these changes.
My adjustments:
1. I slightly moved the darts (at the front) to the outside
2. I added some width to the shoulder area (changes to the pattern pieces – see photo below)
If you have questions to my adjustments, please feel free to send me an email!
What I particularly liked are the instructions on how to line the dress/body. The dress is provided with a side + invisible zipper and the needed lining sewing technique for this, of which I of course have heard and read before, its implementation always remained – up to this manual – a mystery to me. So thank you Jennifer for this extremely helpful extension of my sewing skills.
Addendum: The now published pattern is of course the optimized version (according to the feedback of this test), although only little adjustments were made. (For example: the neckline width has been reduced slightly and an additional scoop neck neckline has been added and while the test pattern only had a gathered skirt, there is another one with pleats included now, so it feels like more extras has been added than correction were made.)
And this is my Raine Dress. Isn’t it beautiful? <3
