Soft and glamorous velvet Eve Dress by Sew Over It – Dressmaker ball 2019

I am not being funny here, but why on Earth had I chose to make my dress for Dressmaker Ball from unknown materials???? Challenge you say?…or stupidity? The dress I had in mind had a lace bodice and a chiffon pleated and gathered skirt. At the end I had to ditch this project because I would have never finish it on time….another lesson learnt! DO NOT WAIT TILL THE LAST MOMENT!!!

So just few days before the Dressmaker Ball I grabbed one of my trusted patterns- Eve dress, by Sew Over It. I previously made a knee lenght dress from double georgette material for summer time, which was perfect untill I burned it with an iron, so now I will re-fashion it into a top. I had tried it before and it works very well.

Velvet dress

I like to try different fabrics to see how the same pattern will behave so for my Dressmaker Ball I decided to go with soft and lush velvet fabric that I purchase last minute from my local shop. The pattern recommend a lightweight woven fabrics with some drape, but my velvet was stretchy so I knew I would have to stabilise it somehow. I opted for a ankle lenght version with floaty sleeves and a long tie.

Fabric requirement for my size is 3.7 meters of 140cm wide, but I panicked and got 4 meters instead. After washing and drying the material I had realised that it is wider then your standard width and I managed to lay all the pieces using only 2.5 meters…..this makes me very happy as I can make another project out of it. In hindsight the cost of this dress is only £20 (£7.50 a meter of velvet plus thread and stay tape)! Bargain I would say!

Pattern adjustments

Since I used this pattern previously I did not make any adjustments this time round, but for the sake of clarity I will tell you anyway.

I made size 18 (even tho my measurements are closer to size 20), because this is a wrap dress I thought it would be ok and finished garment measurements indicated that size 18 would be better since I didn’t want any ease.

Per usual I had raised the waistline by 3 cm and did a slight sway back adjustment. Also, I reduced the lenght of the bodice above bust by 1.5 cm and added 4 cm to the hem.

Cutting and sewing

It took me about 50 minutes to cut out all the pieces and 6 hours to sew and press my dress. Normally it takes me a little less time but I had to stabilise the waistline and tie with a stay tape to stop it from stretching and decided to handstitch the neckline using bias tape.

Sewing velvet is easy and the final outfit is like a dream to wear.

Final thoughts

Eve dress by Sew Over It is yet another pattern worth having in your stash. Depending on fabric used it can be transformed from casual every day dress to a romantic and dramatic evening dress. I absolutely love it and thinking of making a summer version next out of some drapey fabric with colourful flowers.

The wrap style of this dress is perfectly drafted to ensure security and comfort. Plus if your weight fluctuate with time (like mine), you won’t have to worry about fitting as you can tie the belt more or less depending on your body shape. Win-win !!!