Sew Over It’s Penny dress is a lovely, straight forward to sew shirt dress which is perfect for spring / summer but could also be worn in Autumn/Winter if worn with a cardigan / vest underneath. It features a sleeveless button-up bodice, flat collar, a gathered shoulder panel, an elasticated waist and a midi-length skirt. The original pattern was brought out several years ago and I bought it when Sew Over It still had their gorgeous vintage style pattern envelopes. In the last month or so they have also brought out an ‘add on pack’ which has pattern pieces to turn your Penny dress into a tie front blouse, a play suit and also a tie detail to add onto the original dress. So with lots of options to choose from, it’s a really versatile pattern.
Fabric
The dress is best made up in lightweight woven fabrics like rayon, linen, crepe. You need something with good drape so that the skirt hangs nicely. I have made two versions now; my first one was made from some beautiful viscose twill (first picture above) which I bought from www.sewisfaction.co.uk back in 2020 and my second one was a lovely linen / rayon mix from www.remnanthousefabric.co.uk – they do still have some of this available (as at time of writing!) and I would highly recommend it. It’s a lovely fabric to work with, to wear and is so pretty!
Fitting
In addition to the two versions I mentioned above, I did also make a quick toile to check the fit of the dress before I cut into my nice fabric. I cut out a size 10 and my toile fit me perfectly straight out of the packet with no fit adjustments. The only thing I changed was the style of the skirt…. more on that below! Penny is a very easy fitting dress anyway; the bodice is loose fitting and has no darts. There is 4.5 inches of ease at the bust, so lots of wriggle room but the elasticated waist cinches you in nicely at the waist, meaning that you still have some definition on the torso. There are no sleeves to speak of; instead, the pattern has a dropped shoulder style meaning that the shoulder seam extends beyond your shoulder and drapes nicely over the very top of your arm. So again, nice and easy with nothing too much to worry about fit wise in that area. The skirt isn’t fitted either, being a circle style, so skims over your hips with ease!
Sewing
Sew Over It label Penny as an intermediate level pattern. I didn’t find any of the sewing steps too tricky and the instructions are good. The most difficult parts are probably the collar; inserting the elastic at the waist and the buttons holes. Although I was lazy and used Prym snaps instead of buttons on both of my versions! I would say that things to watch out for would be making sure you remember to mark your notches – particularly on the neckline so that inserting the collar is made that bit easier and also so you know exactly where to fold the centre front to get your button placket nice and neat and even. With the elasticated waistband, make sure that you sew the channel accurately according to the 2cm seam allowance in the instructions so that your elastic fits. Also take your time with inserting the elastic to try and make sure that the waist gathers evenly all the way round.
Style
Style wise the only thing I changed about Penny was the skirt. I’m not a fan of circle skirts – I love the look of them, but I always think they overwhelm my frame as I’m fairly short and I prefer something slightly more form fitting. I have made a few tiered and gathered skirts over the summer so I decided to change up the circle skirt for one of those. It was a really straight forward adjustment – I just made sure that the circumference of my top tier matched the circumference of the waist on the pattern and then calculated my second and third tiers from that measurement. I’m planning another blog post on how to draft and sew a tiered and gathered skirt, so won’t go into more detail here but safe to say, I love how it turned out!
Penny is a really wearable dress; it’s relaxed fit and elastic waist means that its very comfortable. I really like wearing both my dresses with trainers for a casual day look but equally the dresses can be worn with heels for a dressier occasion. Definitely a pattern that I will make again!
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