With my recent success at using printed PDF patterns, I bought the April Rhodes Staple Dress pattern. I had seen this over on Camilla’s blog and loved the shape, and she had told me that it was a fairly easy make. Sounded great to me! I’ve had the dress below (sale special from New Look!) in my wardrobe for about 5 years and it’s still one of my favourites; the shape is just sooo comfy and flattering! I had high hopes for this one!
I was an immediate fan of the pattern as there was only 1 piece for the front, 1 piece for the back and the facings pieces. I inserted pockets and constructed the dress, ready for elastic, in around an hour. This pleased me quite a lot.
For the gathered waist, the pattern recommends using elastic thread but does give an alternative for if you haven’t got any. I didn’t have any elastic thread so went with a 1/4″ width length of elastic, stretched it around the waist and stitched in place with a zig-zag stitch. This is when the dress started to disappoint me a little. 😦 I think that my tension may have been set a little too high as when I was finished with the elastic stitching, it stayed quite stretched out and didn’t really gather! I think my piece of elastic was a little too long so that didn’t help either.
I still like the dress; even though it is a little tent-like, it is very comfy. I think it looks much better with a belt. Next time though, I think I will be cutting the smaller size and maybe casing the elastic around the waist instead….and using a smaller piece!!
threads + bobbins 
Very cute with a belt. The fabric is pretty. And did you make the quilt on the bed?
Thank you 🙂 I think I much prefer it with the belt! Unfortunately, I didn’t make the quilt….it’s a fake printed quilted pattern with rows of stitching…from Walmart :-0
Argh there’s always something! It looks cute with the belt though and it has gathered a bit which is enough I think 🙂
It looks better with the belt anyway, as your waist is more defined. Very pretty, feminine print too, which suits you a treat.
I love the staple dress — but i used elastic thread in mine and I did more than recommended for a cinched waist. This does help with the tent-like aspect!
I like the sound of elastic thread but it scares me a little as I’ve never used it before 😳 I will be trying to get some though to see if I can perfect this pattern!
Your dress is very cute. It does look better with the belt.