Do you ever see a beautiful dress pattern and just know you need to make it? That’s how I felt about Simplicity 9475. This was meant to be my Easter dress, but a poorly-timed empty thread spool made that impossible. Instead, I finished it in the nick of time for a wedding we attended this summer.
The Pattern – Simplicity 9475
The Simplicity 9475 pattern is a dress with a deep sweetheart neckline. There are sizing options for the bust, two length options, and two back options (deep-V or closed). It comes in standard Simplicity sizing. I chose to do the shorter length, and the deep-V back. I strayed from the pattern quite a bit in terms of lining, etc. but the instructions I did follow seemed reasonable.
The Fabric
The fabric I choose is printed chiffon from Joann. I lined/underlined the whole dress with cream-colored lining fabric, also from Joann. I chose a Gutermann thread to match the green chiffon and used a navy invisible zipper. Navy obviously isn’t the first choice, but the kelly green I had chosen stood out too much so I stuck with what I had available.
The Sewing
I started this before Easter and ran out of thread around 8 pm the night before. We made a mad dash to Joann (20 minutes away) for more thread, but I decided I didn’t want to stay up til 2 am working on it. I put it on the back-burner until just before a friend’s wedding this summer.
My husband had an ultramarathon a few hours south of where we live. It was an overnight race, starting at 6 pm. I went back to our hotel and worked on the zipper and other finishing touches while he ran. Then, I took my trusty Tula Pink snips, my magnetic pincushion (I love these so much I have two!), a needle, and thread to California with me and hand-hemmed the skirt on the drive from San Fransisco to Eureka, CA. It’s about 6 hours so it was plenty of time to finish two hems.
Details
On the morning of the wedding, I finished the strap keepers and thread chains between the two layers to keep them together. The strap keepers are an idea I’ve borrowed from Itch To Stitch several times and have been really happy with how they’ve worked. I’ve enjoyed not having to keep such a close eye on my bra straps when wearing sleeveless tops or dresses. This time, I used plastic snaps and they are quite scratchy on their seams. I will revert to metal snaps in the future. The thread chain is the same technique as for the strap keepers but is just between the two skirt layers near the hemline. This is simply to prevent one layer from creeping up without me noticing. It worked quite well and I might implement this strategy in more of my lined skirts.
Conclusion
I quite like the Simplicity 9475 dress pattern and am likely to make it again. I will probably stick with the “covered” back option, as the deep-V option is VERY low and does not cover my bra band. It is also quite low in the front, but wearing a camisole underneath prevented any malfunctions (and covered my bra band). I’d also like to try the sleeves on this. I didn’t want to have to hem them in the chiffon, but I could see making this in a different fabric and using the sleeve pieces.
Additionally, I need to figure out what causes gaping at my necklines. It seems to happen on many necklines, but especially on v-necks. I would like to figure out how to mitigate that for future dresses as the gaping is unsightly and potentially problematic. If anyone has any recommendations, I’d love to hear them in the comments!