So when I first finished this olive green Seamwork Erica dress, I had such high hopes. It was even one of my 2018 Make Nine. And when I tried it on I felt pretty disappointed. The waist was too low, I had to alter it to remove some significant gaping, the elastic insertion in the neckband is weird and the armscye felt too flat. Basically I chalked it up to “this is why we muslin” and moved on, kind of bummed.
And then I put this dress on for Me Made May, wore it all day and LOVED it. I have no explanation why. Maybe after a few weeks, the issues didn’t seem so glaring and I could see the things to like. At this point, I’m not questioning it.
Okay, so the things I love about this dress:
- Long sleeved dresses are fantastic. Seriously. I feel so put together and classy in them.
- The slim fit skirt is really flattering
- Olive green is definitely my color
- Wrap style dresses are SO GREAT at defining your waistline. I absolutely love this silhouette.
Things I’d change about this dress for next time:
- Shorten the bodice by an inch, maybe two. It’s not quite hitting at my natural waist and the tie really wants to sit there. As a result, I feel like it’s pulling upward toward my natural waist a lot. There is no lengthen/shorten line on the pattern, but I’ll slash perpendicular to the grain line below the armscye.
- Remove a little bit of fabric at the front bottom edge of the crossover bodice, to pull the neckline in a little tighter. I have a pretty small chest, so this is probably not something other, more averagely endowed ladies would need to do.
- Eliminate the weird elastic insertion on the neckline that, near as I can tell, does not a damn thing.
- Change the armscye and sleeve head to the Tilly and the Buttons Agnes tee, which is a MUCH better fit. I find Seamwork’s armscyes and sleeve heads are weirdly flat.
Now I know that seems like a lot of things to change, but they all feel pretty minor to me. And they definitely don’t take away from how much I love wearing this Erica dress. It’s kind of too bad I didn’t realize how much I like it until it’s too hot to wear!
Has this ever happened to you? Where you initially wrote off a garment and then fell in love later?
Oh definitely! That was dark indigo Morgan jeans for me. They didn’t work with my summer shirts at all but went with every sweater I owned. Olive really is your color! I love it in general, and it suits you down to the ground.
Oh that’s so funny! What made them suit the sweaters more than summer blouses? And 😂 that’s the best color compliment I’ve ever gotten. I recently realized that I’m an autumn color palette and have been embracing the warm tones. Makes a big difference, unsurprisingly.
This dress looks fantastic on you. I love it and I love the color. There’s hardly any reviews on it so thanks for the write up.