Simplicity 3128

Today I thought we could talk about my new dress Simplicity 3128. It’s a Mimi G pattern. She’s designed some really beautiful patterns and I made a few of them in the past, but this one I had to try because I’ve been very into the milkmaid bodice trend. You’ll maybe have seen some of my other versions of this sort of style of dress – here’s the white Brandi Joan version and my heart print satin Brandi Joan hack.

So it’s got the sweet gathered bust area with little ties at the front. This version then has a button down front, which is quite unusual and drew my attention. But I decided to hack the dress because I don’t wear all-in-one fitted dresses below the waist. So I split off the bodice to make separate pattern pieces so I could add some flare to the skirt.

I’d already toiled the pattern, so I knew immediately that I could get started on this. On my toile I didn’t put my notches on properly, so I didn’t gather to the correct stopping point and had some pooling under the armpits. So that was easily fixed. And then where I had chopped it off at the waist, I misjudged the position and turns out my waist was sitting a bit higher so raised the seam to match. I also omitted the darts at the front and back by folding them out; because they run down into the skirt to then be able to shape around the stomach and obviously I didn’t need them because I cut it off and added a separate skirt.

You hem the armhole, front edge and then the upper edge to make the casing for the drawstring. It’s an interesting construction. You sew your upper and lower bodice together, then apply the front facing. You sew the front to the back and then you attach your back facing. This way it encloses the raw edges and everything is pushed towards the back which I like.

This fabric is amazing. Indian block prints have been everywhere for the last year. I picked this up in a destash from my friend Marie. I put a poll out on Instagram for people to tell me what they thought this print on the fabric was. It was described as roses in the original fabric post. But they’re kind of giving me, like, fruit vibes, like maybe some kind of berry? Someone else also described them as purple cabbages. Someone said brains, I’m not really into that description, but whatever they are, they’re very cute.

I love the purple. I was looking for a purple and orange print, ideally. I’m really big fan of Pink City Prints. They’re a ready to wear company who use exclusively block print Indian cottons in like, the most amazing neon colours. But I think this is pretty good. Pretty fun. Purple. Lovely colours. And yeah, the pops of green. I managed to find buttons in my stash that are like a grey green that I think. I think the tie in quite well, so I was pretty pleased with that.

I think it’s very flattering. It makes me feel very busty. My wardrobe is crying out for sundresses, strappy little sundresses. When I go on my dance lessons on Monday nights, it gets very warm in the dance studio. So strappy dresses are great for that.