New Look 6145 Pattern Review | Best Shift Dress Sewing Pattern

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He-lo everyone!

Hope you are all having fantastic week! I am getting over a bug that had me out of sewing action all weekend! Grrr! May has not been great because I have had 2 weekends in which I was really poorly. I am determined not to catch anything else. Its difficult with little people at school bringing back all sorts of stuff. And yes it meant little ones were sick as well = no fun ;-(

Even worse still no sewing but I am going to make up for that next week when I am done with all the marking I have to do this coming week.

Anyway rant over! Now back to the good stuff! I am so excited to share with you this shift dress I love so much.

First of all its an entry into the Simplicity Star Sewist Competition. There are 3 patterns to choose from and the challenge is to use the patterns as a basis for your own bespoke creation. The only rule is that there are no rules! Using the pattern as your foundation, go wild with fabric, colour, nips here, tucks there and feel free to accessorise to the hilt! Whether fabric is your forte or your signature style is more haute couture, simply show us what you’re made of and stamp your very own style on these patterns.

Anyway it also means you get a free pattern. Well you had me at free pattern! Having chosen the shift dress New Look 6145 I filled out the form and received my free pattern in early May.

My various sketches for customizing the sift dress.

This dress started life on the back of water bill envelope where I sketched out ideas for a shift dress while in the car on the way back from a family trip. But while I was deciding what to make I had to make the muslin straight away to get the fit right before adding any design features.

I knew I wanted it to be sleeveless and I wanted it to be made of linen. Making the muslin was quick work because there were only 3 pieces. I had to do a sway back adjustment. I also bowed out the darts a further 1/4″ in the back for a better fit. The neck had some gaping which I pinned out and the pivoted out on the flat pattern to create a new pattern piece. Those issues sorted I had a perfect fitting dress to work with. Raised the hem a bit and I eliminated the zip as I found I could easily slip it on and off. Next the design features….

I decided on a bib because I had just bought a pintuck foot and thought it would be great to try it out.The bib was traced of a bowl an straing lines. I used a pintuck foot – a new and wonderful experience in concentrated sewing. I was in sewing genius state while doing the pintucks! It was such an involved task that bombs could have been going off an I wouldn’t have noticed! I had to cut a rectangular piece of linen and mark the pintuck lines precisely 3/8″ apart. I used my pattern wheel for this. For the pintuck foot I needed to thread my 2.0cm twin needle (I really dislike threading the twin needle). Once I was set up it took about 40 minutes to do all the pintucks. It should take less but my upper thread kept breaking. So the pintucks are not the neatest.To protect the pintucks I interlined with cotton voile and I glad i did that because it feel so nice when I am wearing it.

The faux button placket went in next. This was easy just drawing out a strip 5/8″ wide then adding seam allowances and pressing under before topstitiching on the center of the bib.

The fabric is a medium weight linen – one of my favourite fabrics to work with. I love the colour – a neutral olive and I knew I wanted the bib to be a contrast colour. Decided on an deep cream linen contrast for the bib to get a 60s like vibe to it. I toyed with the idea of a bib in the same colour but with contrast piping around it. Idea struck out because I didn’t have a piping foot and I am still scared of piping ;-).

For the interiors I used french seams on the sides and shoulders while the back seam is overlocked (I cant remember why I did that). I decided on facing instead of bias binding for the neckline because I needed it to have more strength plus more importantly to create a clean finish without visible topstitching. The armholes are bias bound.