Hi Sewing Friends! Today I'm giving you a little pattern review on the Ava Dress by Pattern Scout. I needed a little cocktail dress for my friends party and I thought it would be fun to sew one instead of spending days shopping for one. I just love how it turned out! I felt pretty and and so comfortable all night.
I picked the Pattern Scout Ava Dress Pattern because I was looking for something easy to sew with capped sleeves and a v-neck that wasn't too low. I can attest that this pattern is indeed very straight forward and comes together very smoothly. I really like that it has an elastic waistband in the back of the dress that allows you to adjust the fit very easily. I love how flattering the dress is as well.
Making the Ava Dress by Pattern Scout
It is sewn up in a silky soft peachskin polyester fabric that I picked up at Joann. I love this fabric so much. This fabric doesn't wrinkle, it is buttery soft, it is so light weight it feels like you are wearing nothing, and it has beautiful drape.
The pattern comes as a digital download that you have to print and piece together. I chose to add about 4 inches of length to the skirt which was very easy to do.
A Look Inside the Dress
Here's a look at the inside of the dress. The neckline and the the sleeves are fully faced and there are no raw edges to finish because the directions have you sewing the side seams and shoulders together with french seams. There are instructions to topstitch the front placket in place but I chose to lightly hand stitch it from the back because I was afraid this light weight fabric would be to rippled looking if I topstitched it.
Here's a view of the underarm area. I found that the arm opening was a little larger than I wanted it to be so I added a hand sewn semi circle to close it up a little more. This worked perfectly but didn't hold up for more than a couple of wearings.
From this view you can also get a little glimpse of how the elastic casing is constructed.
Overall I loved the fit and construction of this pattern so much that I sewed up another one in white. But I'll save that for another post.
Have you made the Ava dress or sewn any patterns by Pattern Scout? Let me know!
Happy Sewing!
