I bought the Sophia dress pattern from By Hand London quite some time ago now and was attracted to it by its sleek lines and figure hugging design. It has two variations – variation one has a full, multi-pannelled skirt with a wide ‘sailor’ type collar and variation two has a straight skirt with angled darts which match those on the bodice. I have made two versions of this dress and opted for variation two on each occasion – one with the collar and one without.
As a side note, you may be thinking that I’ve already done a pattern review on a Sophia dress…..but that’s not to be confused with this one. I made the Sofia dress from Sew Over It last summer in a lovely white broderie anglaise. Two lovely dress patterns with the same name but spelt differently!
Fabric
Fabric recommendations for Sophia are really quite broad, ranging from cotton lawn and quilting cotton to wool tweed. Anything in the light to medium weight woven category will be fine. For my first version I used a beautiful emerald colour jacquard from Sewisfaction. It was a stunning colour and lovely easy fabric to work with. It really gave the dress an ‘elevated’ look which was wedding worthy which is what I was looking for as I made it to wear for my cousin’s wedding. I lined the bodice of this version in the same fabric and then used a small amount of leopard print polyester satin to line the skirt. The pattern doesn’t call for the skirt to be lined but I chose to because I wanted to ensure that it glided comfortably over my tights.
For my second version I used a fabric which had been sitting in my fabric stash for a number of years and I hadn’t known what to do with it. I’m actually not sure of the exact composition of it but it was really light weight and embroidered with large green flowers and foliage. It is so beautiful I had been procrastinating over what to use it for to do it justice. I knew I wanted to make a second version of Sophia so finally made the decision to use it for that purpose! This fabric is really sheer so I lined both the bodice and the skirt in white cotton lawn to preserve my modesty!
Fans of pattern matching may not be a fan of this dress as I made zero effort to match the fabric design across my seams. Pattern matching has never really bothered me that much and I didn’t have enough fabric to do it properly with this dress anyway, so decided not to try. I’m happy with how it looks and I’m sure that anyone who doesn’t sew probably wouldn’t notice!
The amount of fabric required for variation two of Sophia is really quite minimal as there is only four pattern pieces. You need just over a meter of the main fabric and half a meter for the lining (or a meter if you line the full dress). So this makes it great for using up small amounts of fabric you have laying around or if you want to use some extra special (expensive!) fabric, then you only need to buy 1.5 meters of it!
Fitting
Size wise I sewed up a 12 as the finished measurement chart showed that’s where I fit best and I’m really pleased with how it looks and feels. I didn’t make any alterations at all which was brilliant! Both of my dresses are snug but not tight and that’s how I like them to be in this type of style. The jacquard I used in my first version had a very small amount of stretch in it which helped with the fitting but the second version had no stretch at all and is still comfortable. I actually made my first version several years ago when I liked my skirts to be a bit shorter so the only change I made to the pattern was to shorten it by a few inches. With my second version which I made more recently I kept the skirt length as it was intended with the original pattern, so it now covers my knees and as this means that the front skirt split is longer, it looks much more in proportion than in the first version. There isn’t much more to say about the fitting of this dress as it worked out so well – if only all patterns could be the same!
Sewing
This pattern comes together quickly which is another bonus; variation two that is! I haven’t made variation one with the full skirt with godets but sewing all of those together will definitely take a bit longer! For variation two there are just over 30 sewing steps and none of them are complicated or difficult. I would say that this pattern is beginner to intermediate friendly. The most difficult parts to get right would be the darts and the invisible zip but as long as you have done a few of those before, you will be fine. The instructions are really user friendly and talk you through each step in easy to understand language with useful line drawings to assist each section. There are also additional tips sprinkled throughout to help you get a really nice finish. As well as this, By Hand London have a blog which is referenced in the instructions where you’ll find extra help on certain techniques if you need it.
The only thing I did differently was to line the skirt as mentioned above. I actually just cut out the main skirt pieces and the lining skirt pieces, basted each pair together within the seam allowances and then treated them as one piece. (As opposed to having the lining hanging separately.)
Style
Style wise, Sophia is designed to be a party dress and both of my versions fit that bill. As I mentioned above, one was made for a wedding and the other one will definitively be a special occasion dress. The type of fabric used will dictate exactly how special occasion your dress feels but I can also foresee making a version in denim, perhaps, and wearing it with trainers for a more relaxed look.
All in all, Sophia is a really lovely pattern. It’s a perfect ‘go-to’ for an event that you have coming up. Its quick to sew, doesn’t take much fabric and definitely has impact – what more could you want!
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