Tilly and the Buttons Stevie with a Colour Block

Tilly and the Buttons Stevie with a Colour Block

Last week I made a gift for my Mum's birthday and that was a Tilly and the Buttons Stevie Dress. It was my first Stevie and I know it won't be my last as she's already asked for another when I've got time! As per usual with Tilly's patterns, it's a lovely easy to follow pattern and that allowed me to play with the design a bit. Mum has the same problem that I do in that she's got a 4" difference in her upper bust and full bust measurements so I followed the suggestions for the Bettine dress FBA to correct for this.

Although Stevie has a lot of different features, the top half of the front bodice is almost identical to Bettine so the FBA is the same method. There's already a 2" difference between the upper and full bust in the pattern according to the fitting guide, so I needed to add 1" to each half of the pattern. Once I'd done this, I'd decided that I'd continue the line of the yoke round to the front of the dress as I'd gone with a deep purple and bottle green plaid flannel and I thought a full plaid dress might be a bit too much. I measured the position of the yoke on the back bodice, measured the same distance from the hem on the front bodice and drew a new line. I cut the front bodice piece on that line and then added a 5/8" seam to each side of the cut.

Tilly and the Buttons Stevie Colour Block

I followed the pattern instructions for the most part but because of the FBA, Tilly suggests gathering the extra fabric when you join the side seams. I did this by adding a couple of lines of gathering stitches from the bust notch down for around 3 inches and I used this to ease the extra fabric in.

Tilly and the Buttons Stevie Colour Block

As it's only an extra inch, it was fairly smooth when completed.

Tilly and the Buttons Stevie Colour Block

I decided that as I'd added the purple needlecord to the yoke and the colour blocked front bodice, I'd add a little bit of the plaid back into the sleeve cuffs and neck tie for a bit of extra detail. The only thing that I wish I'd done is moved the colour block line down a couple of inches to below the bust and done the same on the back bodice so that the purple extended below the yoke. Next time!

Tilly and the Buttons Stevie Colour Block

I loved making this Stevie and Mum loves the fit of it. For me though, I'll be needing to add considerably more length as it's only just long enough on my 5'6" mum and I think I'd add a belt or some waist shaping as its a very loose fit through the waist.