A shape dress pattern

Hi there!

First of all, thank you so much for this amazing website — I absolutely love it! :blush:

I’m just an enthusiastic beginner trying to step up my game. I recently fell in love with a dress and decided to take on the challenge of making it from scratch.

My first big hurdle has been the pattern. My husband (who’s a designer, though not in fashion) has been helping me draft it, but when we print, cut, and assemble the pieces, something always seems off — and we can’t figure out what we’re doing wrong.

So, I’m reaching out for help. If anyone here has experience with this and could guide us, we’d be incredibly grateful!

Thanks in advance! :yellow_heart:

Nice dress. I am trying to understand what your question is.
I guess that’s the dress you made? I think it flows around the body nicely. The collar is different that I am used to, but it gives an accent to the dress. If I would see it in the public I would look back.
Can you elaborate more what you are asking? Is the dress different as you want it? Is the fabric not hanging right on certain parts? Is it uncomfortable for the wearer?..

Hi @filipa_fernandes great to have you here :hugs:

Like @nejcek74 I’m a not entirely certain what it is you are asking us.

However, based on the poses and the lack of background in the pictures, I suspect this is the dress you fell in love with, not the one you made? And you’re maybe asking us how to draft such a dress?

In which case, apart from the collar (more on that later) you just need neck and shoulders and then draft an elongated A-shape from there down.
Obviously, it’s entirely dartless, so this dress will not work for curvy bodies, but I presume you are aware of that.

You can start with something as simple as Aaron, then just extend the hemline downwards and outwards. Change the neckline and armhole options to get the shape you want. I clicked around for a minute or 2 and ended up with this:

You should re-draw the side seam to be a straight line instead of curves, but apart from that this should be a good start. You can turn on paperless view to check the length so it’s a good length for you.
Both the hem ease and length our outside the range of the slider provided, but you can enter any value manually (which is what I did).|

Here is a link to what I did:

The one thing that this won’t do is the collar. Because the collar will lie flat against the body. As it’s tyipcally supposed to. In the picture, the collar rises from the body. Personally, to me that’s a flaw rather than a feature, but if you want that, you should ensure that there is extra length in the neckline, which you can do by adding fabric on the shoulder seam, add to the neck side and then taper that to zero on the shoulder side.

But, I very much doubt that that is what made you fall in love with this dress, so you can also just ignore that part.

My guess is that the collar is made up of several pieces (front and back, as well as inside and outside), like a stand collar. It’s certainly not a mistake — it’s designed to create a distinctive shape. Whether one like it or not is another matter, of course. :slight_smile:
OP can really the Aaron and make the collar opening slightly bigger and than create an oversized closed stand collar for it

Hi there!
I’m sorry, you are right, I wasn’t very clear.
I meant that I can’t get the sewing pattern right, specially on the neck/shoulders area.
As you mentioned, collar is different than usual so I can’t find on the internet a similiar draft available. I’m stuck in this step.
Thank you so much for the advice on using the Aaron design and for the alteration tips needed to get there. I definitely am going to try!
Thank you so much :blush: