The Jackie dress in silk jersey knit (Victory Patterns)
This Jackie dress, despite its princess seams, is not a princess dress like I dreamed of as a child. It is a witch dress.
The princess dress as I see it now is a dress to be cute, uncomfortable and oppressive of clichés and injunctions to be beautiful, kind and they had many children.
My black witch dress is an eminently classy and comfortable dress, a dress to live your life, creating, slouching on the couch and walking in freedom.
And still no change in the color theme in sight…
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Hop, the 11th project checked off my list of 2021 couture projects! Will there be 12 to round up to 1 per month? |
| ITEM | SHOP | PRICE | QUANTITY |
| Jackie dress PDF pattern | Victory Patterns | 1 | 11,00 € |
| Black silk jersey knit | Sacrés Coupons | 3 m | 60,00 € |
| Black chinese knot button | Dam Boutons | 3 | 6,90 € |
| Stretch fusible interfacing | La Réserve des Arts | 0,5 | 0,10 € |
| Thread | Stock | 0 | 0 € |
| Total | 78 € |
The Jackie dress pattern
The Jackie dress is a long dress with a high collar to be made in jersey with a minimum of 20% stretch, with princess seams from top to bottomand closed by a buttoned slit on the neck.
It is available in 2 lengths, below the knee and mid-calf and with or without long sleeves.
Purchased in November 2018, I’ve “only” had this pattern for 3 years but it took me a while to find the right fabric and build up the courage to get started. Perhaps it was the “Intermediate” level that stressed me out?
Victory Patterns is a Canadian pattern brand based in Toronto. The patterns are therefore in English.
The explanations are super complete, very well laid out and illustrated with diagrams. In addition, a sew-along is available on the Victory Patterns website in 10 articles.
The pattern in A4 / letter is 48 pages to assemble and then 11 pattern pieces to cut out. I won’t lie: it’s long!
The pattern is available from size 0 to 16. The pattern suggests primarily to sew with the serger while specifying that it remains possible to sew with the sewing machine.
Sewing the Jackie dress
Following the sew-along advice, I graded the dress from a size 6 at the bust to a size 8 at the waist.
And before jumping into the deep end, I also made the recommended toile (try-out version) for the top of the dress out of jersey scraps that were much more stretchy than my silk jersey.
The toile came out just right, except for that back slit that was gaping again. So on the final version, I drastically reduced the height of the slit opening.
Hello white hair!
Funnily enough, this back slit has to be sewn like what I tried to do for my 123 t-shirt from Burda 09/2021 (following my mistake at the cutting).
But here, the method is well explained and more rigorous.
Nevertheless, this is the most complex part of the Jackie dress and requires to be really precise.
Moreover, it is necessary to interfacing as advised with a fine stretch interfacing (type G780) and to realize these seams with the sewing machine.
And we can’t insist enough on the importance of not skimping on the quality of the supplies…
But, I haven’t even mentioned the fabric! It’s a silk jersey coupon found at Sacrés Coupons knitwear specialty store in the Marché de St Pierre area (near the Sacré Cœur).
It’s heavy and very soft with just 20% stretch in width (the recommended minimum) and none in height (also recommended). The wash has given it a velvety look with some white streaks.
Maybe I can re-dye it black sometime.
Cutting the pieces was quite complicated with the impossibility to align the edges that were warping. In the end, my pieces were absolutely not symmetrical with sometimes up to 1 cm difference between the left and the right piece…
Not very important on the skirt but much more dangerous on the bodice.
I admit that I continued my sewing in a leap of faith that everything would (maybe) (surely) (eventually) be okay in the end.
Oddly, despite this and the less stretchy jersey than the canvas, the finished dress is less fitted than the toile.
Probably silk jersey is less elastic (in the sense of less resilient) than synthetic jerseys, kind of like a linen jersey?
Once the dress was finished, I let it hang for a few days in case the jersey would relax… but it didn’t.
However, I did have to trim to even out height differences of up to 3 cm because of the cut!
The hems were interfaced with a 4 cm high band to make it fall better. Then I just folded over once and finished with the coverstitch.
Conclusion
I am very happy with my Jackie dress, the pattern, the fabric and the combination between the two.
Maybe I could take it in slightly at the waist to cinch it up a bit.
On the other hand, coming in to mold my belly after eating may not be really desirable. And as it is, it is so soft and comfortable!
