A Very Preppy Sigma Dress

Another holiday post! I’m hanging onto my holiday for dear life (can you tell?), it feels like we’ve been home forever…

This is the Papercut Patterns Sigma Dress, made up in a medium weight yarn dyed cotton from The Fabric Store. This pattern has been out for ages, but hadn’t really been on my radar until I started looking for a simple dress pattern with a darted bodice and long sleeves to make a winter dress with. Obviously this isn’t the winter dress I was planning, I didn’t get around to making that before our trip (and it’s too warm now, it’ll need to wait until next winter), but I thought that a short sleeved version would be a handy dress to take with us.

There was nothing in there, very disappointing.

I actually made up a muslin of this dress before cutting into this cotton, which showed that the bust dart was way too high for me. I ended up moving it down by over an inch, but now I’ve got something funny going on with fabric pooling under the dart. I’m going to have another play with the bodice, maybe doing a small FBA to try to get rid of that excess. I’m not too bothered about it with this version, it’s a bit rough anyway! I utterly failed to match the gingham across the centre back seam as well, so it’s definitely not a perfect dress. Aside from the weird fit in the bust, I’m happy with the way this pattern fits. There is a bit of ease in the waist, which I like, and I think the shoulders and sleeves fit really nicely.

I really like the little gathered patches on either side of the skirt, they add a bit of fullness and movement without adding any bulk or making the skirt too big. I didn’t put the pockets in this one, because the pocket pieces looked really tiny and I couldn’t be bothered pulling out another pattern to find some proper sized ones (I was sewing this pretty close to the trip), but the gathers will help to hide any bulk from the pockets too.

Much as I like the pattern and fabric, I was initially a bit worried that I had made a school uniform when I finished it and tried it on! My uniform was teal, yellow, and black tartan (hideous), so not at all like this, but the grey gingham gave me an unexpected schoolgirl vibe. Definitely not what I was looking for! I’ve tried styling it a few ways, from this super-casual-with-sneakers look to a ultra preppy with brogues and tights, and I think it’ll be ok. Just as well I haven’t made that grey blazer I’ve been planning!

I was very pleased to have this dress when I was packing for our mini-trip to Portugal, as it ended up being over 30ºc the week that we were there! I got pretty sunburned on our first day (bad!), so having this dress with a higher neck and covered shoulders was perfect. You can see a bit of my sunburn radiating up from my neckline in these photos. It was nice to have a loose dress to wear too, something to let the air circulate around my torso as we were out walking up hills in the heat! These photos were taken at the Castelo São Jorge in Lisbon, in the ‘romantic garden’. The Castle has the most amazing views over the city, it was beautiful! the loose waist also meant I had plenty of room to eat pastel de nata, the amazing custard tarts that are so prevalent in Portugal. I love custard, so I was in heaven with all of their variations on custard and pastry!