Pattern Review: True Bias Lora

Hola mi amiga! ¿Como esta usted? ¡Me siento muy feliz hoy! 

Translation: “hello my friend. How are you? I am feeling very happy today!”

[At least I think that’s what I said.] Lol

Don’t get confused now, it’s still me, the one and only UNSEWCIAL (tee hee hee), but I’ve been doing Spanish on Duolingo for a whopping 380 days now, and I’m just so proud of myself for sticking with it consistently. 

You see, I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as consistent. Truth is, I have a hard time committing to things. When I bought my sewing machine 5 years ago, both my hubby and bro had bets that my ‘sewing journey’ wouldn’t last more than a few months, at best. Well, gah! I proved them both wrong, cas’ it’s been 5 years and your girl is STILL friends with her sewing machine. 😝 I don’t sew every day, and in fact, there have been weeks without me managing one stitch because life gets in the way sometimes. Buuuutttttt I’m just as excited today about my sewing journey as I was when it started half a decade ago, maybe even more so TBH.

When I reflect on the last 5 years, I am proud of the progress I have made with my sewing, my picture taking and my blogging (though the latter two still aren’t as frequent as I would like). In the ideal world, I would make a promise to show up here on a consistent schedule, but this ain’t the ideal world, and I wouldn’t wanna give you any false hope…. So, I guess that means you’ll get me when you get me! Sometimes, you’ll get too much of me, other times you might have to send the po-po out to find ya girl. 

Anyhoo, I got a new make for you! This is make number 9 of 2023!

The Pattern

When I saw the sneak peaks of the True Bias Lora on my Instagram feed, I was instantly obsessed. You best believe I snapped it right up on release day. Y’all, I don’t think I’ve EVER bought  a pattern this quickly. I  loved every single view: the mini, the midi, the sleeves and the sleeve-less! Plus, I thought the empire waistline with the gathers would be flattering on a short-waisted gyal, such as myself! 

Sometimes, I buy a pattern, and it sits in my stash for a lonnnnggggggg time before I sew it up; many haven’t been made at all. But not this time. I had a couple other commitments that had strict deadlines, but as soon as those were completed, I printed and assembled view A of this pattern.  

As I was trimming and sticking the pdf pages, I thought about what fabric I would use. I knew I wanted bold and bright with mega island girl flavour… so I opted for this gorgeous Ankara fabric I bought from, you guessed it, Afrique Clothing Store. I cannot lie, Cynthia’s Ankara’s are BEAUTIFUL. The quality, the colours, the print…. A1!

Fitting Fundamentals

True Bias patterns are drafted for a C cup. Hoooorrraayyyyyy! That means no FBA for me! I selected my size based on my bust size (rather than my high bust, as I usually do). That put me between a size 14 and 16 at the bust. My waist and hips fit within the size 14, and based on the finished garment measurements, I thought I could get away with a straight size 14, so that’s what I did. I made a quick and dirty toile, just to check the fit, and thought it was a little snug, but the length seemed perfect. I did not toile the skirt portion. Instead, because of the silhouette of the skirt, I performed my typical ¼” hollow hip adjustment, said a prayer and went with it. That was my ONLY fitting adjustment. Gosh darn it. True bias for the win. Ya heard? 

Though the pattern is drafted with someone approximately 5’5″ in mind, I chose not to lengthen the dress. Like I said, I’m short waisted. This means I typically have to shorten the bodice portion of most patterns. I am however almost 4″ taller than the pattern muse, but carry most of my height in my legs. To mimic the length on the pattern ‘envelope’ I probably should have lengthened the skirt about 2 inches or so, but I didn’t because its hot, AND I have nice legs… so legs you will get. HAHAHHAA

I constructed my garment a little differently than advised by the tutorial. Instead of sewing the bodice and attaching it to an already constructed skirt, I sewed my front skirt pieces to my front bodice, and back skirt to back bodice at the waistline. I then finished my side seams and basted the front dress to the back dress using a 3/8” seam allowance [as opposed to the ½” seam allowance included in the pattern]. This gave me an extra ½” wiggle room in my dress. You guys, I tried on my dress, peeped in the mirror, and grinned like a Cheshire cat. Yassssss it looked good and I felt great, so I finalized my seams at the 3/8” seam allowance. 

Now constructing the dress this way isn’t new to me. In fact, this is my preferred method of construction (when possible) because it allows me to tweak the fit fairly easily. 

Having worn the dress, I think I could have benefited from my typical ¼” sway back adjustment because I do have a little pooling at centre back, but that’s just me being hella picky! Funnily enough, after attaching my buttons, I felt like there was a little extra room at the underarm. Guess I should have stuck with the ½” seam allowance after all, *shrugs* but it’s not enough to really bother me. At least not yet.

It has become second nature for me to insert a strip of elastic whenever I make spaghetti strap dresses. I cut the length of the fabric ½” shorter that the length of the strap, feed it through and baste the ends together. Because I have sloping shoulders, I have found that this technique helps the straps to stay put. The finished straps of the Lora dress are about ½” in width so ideally I needed to use 3/8” or ¼” elastic… but whaddu you know???? There is an elastic scarcity at my local shop, and since my elastic stash is almost non-existent, I skipped it this time. The straps are a little loose, and I might go back and add the elastic after.

The Process

Making this dress was fairly easy, and I would rate this as an advanced beginner to intermediate level. The biggest headache for me was the buttons and loops. Hear me out…

I have always had a hard time picking buttons for my makes. This time, it was a breeze. I knew I wanted fabric covered buttons because in my mind, no other buttons would do this dress justice. The tutorial suggests 3/8” (10mm) shank buttons but the button kit I had was 9/16” (14mm). 

This is the first time I’ve done fabric covered buttons and I think I’ve started a new addiction. They are just sooooooo freaking pretty. Covering the buttons did entail some hand sewing (of gathering stitches for each circle), but in all honesty, the process was pretty straight forward. I made a little reel on how it’s done, so if you wanna give it a go, be sure to check out my reel HERE! 

If covering the buttons was so easy, what, exactly was the headache?

Remember I told you my shank was 9/16”? Well, True Bias tells you to baste the loops in place and DOUBLE CHECK that the button could fit through your loop. Guess who ignored this instruction? 🙋🏾‍♀️ I sewed up my dress, added the loops, sewed my facing, graded AND under stitched, and then covered and added the buttons. Man, I paid for my ignorance. I could not get my buttons through the button loops. Ughhhhhh. That meant I had to go and unpick my under stitching, unpick my facing, and adjust the loops (which by the way, I had already trimmed), in order to get them big enough to accommodate my buttons. Next time, I’ll be sure to check my button + loop before putting in so much work. THAT was the headache! 

But, it’s done and dusted and like I said at the beginning of this post, ¡Me siento muy feliz con mi vestido! I am sooooooo so happy with this dress and I’m not sure one is enough. The pattern is just toooooo good.

If you passed on this pattern during the release, don’t let it pass you by again! BTW, if you sew, happy Me Made May!

Gotta luv ya and leave ya.

Until next time,

Xoxo

Kris