Silhouette Patterns 4000 Swing Dottie Dress

This dress was made in May, a little spot of sunshine in early Winter. Although the week it was made was warm for the time of year and sunny at the little bach we rented over on the West Coast.

Whilst this is the fourth version of this pattern it is the first to make it to the blog as a pattern review. Two were photographed as part of my end of 2019 round-up - one is worn often and the other has left the wardrobe.  Luckily number four is a keeper.

The finished garment

The cut out dress was taken on holiday to be sewn as the colour perfectly coordinated with the other yellow / mustard items in the travel wardrobe. It was sewn on the Sunday and worn on the Monday. A perfect match for the Untouched World Weekend jacket in a colour they called Kowhai with Ernest Wyler Keesha booties in colour sunflower. The Weekend jacket is in my favourite Ecopossum knit, warm and cuddly for early Winter.

This dress had an unsolicited compliment from the farmer's wife we rented the bach from, and generated even more admiration when I said I made it the day before!

Love the "colour pop" picture Google created for me

The finished garment pictures were taken without make-up or shoes. A truly back to nature west coast photo shoot!

The fabric

A lovely bluey grey cotton jersey printed with two inch mustardy yellow dots from Fabric Vision. There is quite a bit of this fabric left over as originally I thought it would become another version of V9243 The Twirling Dress but then I decided I would prefer it as a knee length dress. I am sure you will see it as a top at some point as the dots make me happy. 

The pattern

Silhouette Patterns #4000 Swing Dress is now discontinued and comes with pattern #4009 Morocco's Dress as the under dress.

I have pattern #4009 but never really considered making it. I was curious writing this post to know how my version of #4000 compared. The skirt of #4009 is almost twice the width of #4000 and whilst longer than the original length of #4000 is a couple of inches shorter than my TNT version. Below is a picture of my TNT version of #4000 on top of #4009 for comparison. I am intrigued now and might find a cheap lightweight fabric to make #4009 as a swing dress without the overlay.

The pattern card

All of the pattern alterations are not written on the card because it is a TNT pattern with the original made so long ago (early last year) that until I wrote this blog post I had forgotten all of the changes made to reach this stage.

The ½" forward shoulder adjustment is my standard alteration and the only one I remembered! Will go back to the pattern card and make a note of the length changes.

The pattern alterations

This is one of the few Silhouette Patterns that have caused a bit of head scratching. The reason is the sizing. I make the smallest size (size four) in a D cup which has a finished garment measurement of full bust 36"; waist 36" and hips 44". Normally I make knits in a size 38" with two inches of negative ease at my full bust so the first dress I made was in the size eight. This version was so big I took it apart and re-cut the fabric. The size four Swing dress in a firm knit is just right. When I have made it in an ITY knit I have sewn it with a ⅝" seam allowance (sewn first with a ⅜" seam allowance; then tried on and looked too big; sewn up again chopping off the previous overlocked seam).

I have also had problems with the length. The pattern as printed seems very short more tunic than dress length. My TNT version has been lengthened 10" at centre front and 7¾" at the side seam; centre back was lengthened 7" and 7½" at the side seam.

Other than that I have made my normal ½" forward shoulder adjustment but no sway back adjustment which looking at these photographs I should probably add.

The last change made is more to do with a sewing preference as I cut out the dart to mimic a french dart otherwise there is too much dart fabric sewn in at the side seam.

The sewing

A very easy sew whipped up on the overlocker using four threads. Took me longer to find the right colour grey thread in the little fabric store in Westport (Buller Fabric and Fibre) than it did to sew. And yes I took both my overlocker and sewing machine on holiday with me - well we did travel by car. Even I'm not brave enough to suggest I take both on holiday if we fly.

My order of sewing is to sew the darts first from the tip down to the side seam, then the right shoulder. Whilst the left shoulder is unsewn I attach the neckband then sew the left shoulder seam. The sleeves are attached in the flat and the side seams sewn. All seams are pressed to one side (to the back generally or down in the case of the bust dart) before the next seam is sewn over it.

For the hems I turn up the hem and press it in place whilst the fabric is flat, as it is easier to iron at that stage (I don't sew the side seams with the hems turned up). Once the side seams are sewn and pressed it is easy to fold the hem in place using the previously ironed crease and sew it down. The hems for this dress were sewn with a straight stitch on my old faithful Singer 221 Featherweight.

To make this basic dress a bit more interesting I did the Katherine Tilton twisted neckband as demonstrated on the Craftsy Artful t-shirt class. The twisted neckband requires a fabric where either side can be visible and whilst the dots are only printed on one side I didn't think that mattered for the neckband.

A 2½" strip of fabric folded in half was used for the neckband. The finished width is ¾" so the seam allowance was removed from the dress neckline before the neckband was attached. I sew the band to the neckline with a ½" seam allowance (the overlocker chops off ¼"). I mark two points (with a pin) on the front and one on the back neckline for where I want the twist to occur. I started sewing from the left shoulder down the front neck edge with right sides of the neckband fabric together, as I came close to the pin the fabric was twisted so wrong sides of the neckband fabric were together and sewn in place. The closer to the twist you hold both sides of the fabric together the tighter the twist will look. At the next pin the fabric is turned right sides together again and at the last pin it is turned wrong sides together.

Close-up shot of KT's Twisted Neckband

It is a bit persnickety to attach and get the twists sewn in but it gives an interesting finished neckband that is worth the effort.

The swinging winter red dress

This version of SP4000 was the first version sewn - sometime last year, ages before the Dottie dress. It was never blogged, partly because it took a while to become a finished garment. I thought it was so unlikely to become a wearable dress that I purchased more of the fabric to make something else. 

For this first version of I lengthened the dress the same amount at all seams which when worn the hem curved upwards very noticeably at centre front. This also started off as the size 8 and looked so baggy on. The fabric saved this dress as rather than going straight in the bin it sat on the sewing table for some months awaiting inspiration. Eventually having sorted out my starting size I only had the length problem to deal with. I decided to just shorten it to a long tunic length for wearing with leggings. At home it can be worn as a dress but it's a bit short for me to feel comfortable wearing it in public as a dress.

I loved this fabric and was only brave enough to fix the problem with scissors after I managed to buy some more. This version hasn't been worn very much and may eventually be sent to the charity shop and the dress made again (properly).

Another clue that it was sewn and photographed some time ago is I am actually dressed up complete with make-up. Post pandemic wave one getting all dressed up with nowhere to go is a rare event.