Simplicity 1314 Leatherette Dress

Once upon a time I worked in a fabric shop and I had access to great fabric and patterns 5 days a week so I always had lots of grand plans to make things that I just didn't have time to do. This pattern is a prime example of that! I bought it maybe 2 years ago and I kept thinking about making it but had neither the time or the fabric and quite frankly I didn't have a place to wear it to! So when I came across it when rummaging in my patterns a couple of months ago I thought that now is the time to actually make it. I still had the scraps from my leatherette skirt which was thankfully enough to make the front panels so I only needed to buy 1.4m for the rest of the dress.

Once again, this project was on my Sew Brum shopping list and I was thinking about possibly getting scuba, but when I was in Barry's Fabrics (which, by the way is AMAZING) I came across this great jersey crepe, which gave me the weight and the stretch that I wanted and it was only £4.99/m 😎

The construction was actually easier than I had anticipated. There are two leatherette panels in the front (the pattern suggests doing the back centre panels in the contrast fabric as well, but I wasn't feeling that) the front side panels and all of the back panels are in the jersey crepe.

I didn't anticipate how much ease there is in this pattern and to be honest, I could have made it in a smaller size as it is a bit too much on the baggy side.

Don't know what the resting bitch face is about 😂

I've worn this a few times now and I'm still going back and forth over whether to shorten it as well. However, a major plus of using leatherette and jersey crepe is that there is no need to hem it! Although it did need a facing on the neckline, but I kept the bulk to a minimum.

Overall, I really like this dress. I probably will alter it and I would also like to make another one in regular fabric rather than leatherette and definitely make it in a smaller size so that it's a bit more fitted. 

So because I used scraps of leatherette from a previous project and only 1.4m of jersey crepe, it only cost me £6.98. I can't remember exactly how much the pattern was, but I do remember that it was in the sale, because I hate paying full price for them 😂