The last of my Summer 2023 projects! The Sofia Dress by Sew Over It. I very nearly left this one until next summer but had the perfect white broderie anglaise fabric that was too beautiful to just sit in my fabric stash for another year. The Sofia has wide shoulder straps, a lined bodice with a sweetheart neckline and a low ‘cut out’ back with a choice of either a button closure or a big bow. The skirt also has two options – a straight forward gathered skirt or a tiered version. It’s a lovely summer dress which really stood out to me as soon as I saw it as something that I definitely wanted to make. It comes in a wide size range of 6 to 30.
Fabric
The fabric options for Sofia range from cotton poplin, lawn or seersucker to crepe or viscose. Something that is light to medium weight and nothing too thick or bulky. As mentioned above, I bought some beautiful broderie anglaise from Fine Fabrics of Harrogate at their pop-up shop in Bilton back in April of this year. I knew I wanted to use it to make myself a white dress and had been saving it for the right one. As you can see from the pictures, it has strips of various patterns across the fabric and I tried to use those as a feature within the bodice and on the two skirt tiers to give the dress some more interest. It’s a really pretty material and I’m so pleased that I managed to use it. I think I did make a mistake by using the same fabric for the lining the bodice and the bow. In hindsight I should have just used a basic plain white cotton lawn as a lining because two layers of the broderie anglaise are quite thick and this meant that the bow is really too bulky to tie in a bow as the pattern intends. So I just left it with the first ‘tie’ – see picture – instead of a proper bow but I still like it!
I bought quite a bit so had some left over which I used to make some pyjama shorts and a fabric basket – see pictures at the end of this post below!
Fitting
With regards to the fit, I did make a toile of just the bodice and bow from some old cotton poplin I had, to make sure that it fit ok before cutting into my broderie anglaise. It turned out fine and I didn’t make any adjustments at all. The bodice has a bust dart which helps to provide shaping which sat in the right place for me, as did the shoulder straps. Sew Over It does offer a short lesson within their online sewing school for changing the placement of straps on a shaped bodice. So if yours don’t fit in the right place, then that’s a good resource to use.
In terms of the skirt, I did struggle with getting the back elastic to fit nicely so it hugged my lower back. It may have been because I didn’t have the right width of elastic so I used some which was wider than the pattern suggested and instead of threading it through a channel at the top of the skirt, I just sewed it on the inside with a zig-zag stitch. I had to fiddle around quite a bit with that to get it remotely close fitting and ultimately ended up sewing more elastic to both ends to create an ‘internal elastic belt’ which then did do the job nicely. I just have to make sure that I step into that when I put the dress on.
Sewing
Sewing wise the Sofia dress comes together quite quickly. On first reading the instructions, there does seem to be quite a bit to do but actually the lining is just a repetition of how you sewed the outer bodice, so if I make this again next year, I will just do the lining and outer bodice together. Also if you are making the tiered skirt version and have made tiered skirts before, you almost don’t need to follow the instructions as the process is very straightforward. I didn’t think there was anything particularly tricky about any of the sewing stages and they are all explained really well with helpful drawings to assist. Sewing techniques that you get to practice include sewing darts, gathering, attaching a lining, under stitching, hand slip stitching and ‘stitching in the ditch’!
Looking back, I do feel that I rushed the sewing of this dress somewhat. I was doing it in the mini heat wave we had in September and probably had in mind that I needed to get it done asap so I could wear it while the sun was still here. It’s not badly sewn but its maybe not one of my best!
Style
This dress is very similar to a lot of dresses I saw in the shops this year, so it’s absolutely a design that was fashionable for Summer 2023 and plays into the trend for ‘cut out’ clothing with the open lower back. I like the fact that there are two back options and may very well opt for the button closure next time. It looks lovely as a standalone dress with heels or trainers and could also be worn under a little jacket providing your bow is not too voluminous! (if you choose that back closure). I also like the open, sweetheart neckline as I think that always gives you more scope to wear a lovely necklace with it.
The pattern instructions include some suggestions for ways in which you could change up the look by lengthening it to a maxi skirt or by removing the skirt completely and just making the bodice into a cropped top for example. Alternatively you could play around with the tiers of the skirt as I did, changing them from three to two and switching up the length of each.
In summary, I really like the Sofia dress and I’m just sad that I made it towards the end of summer, rather than at the start, as now that the temperatures are dropping, opportunities to wear it will be limited to say the least! Roll on next summer!
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