Designer Stitch Madison Dress

The Designer Stitch Madison Dress! This dress is beautiful, a very well drafted pattern meant for Ponte (de Roma) or similar double knits. While I do love the pattern, I will start with a warning that this pattern is NOT for beginners. There are a few tricky parts that make this good for intermediate sewists. And if you are looking for a challenge, this dress might be for you!

The Madison Dress does have a few options. Of course, you can color block it however you choose, the 1,2,3 color blocking I used is per the standard recommendation in the PDF, but you could certainly do just 2 colors, 1 color, or switch around where you put the colors. That's the fun and creative part about designing what you sew up! This is the fitted skirt style, but there is also a circle dress option with a color blocking line down the center front if you desire. Sleeve options are banded sleeveless, half sleeves, or full length sleeves.

Ponte is a lovely fabric, especially if you can get your hands on the quality kind. Did you see the article from the most recent Threads Magazine issue about Ponte (March 2020)? It talks about the material percentages to ensure that you get a Ponte Knit that is not like the stuff from the "1970s leisure suits" that has undesired qualities like poor recovery and a tendency to pill. The article stated that the best Ponte is one which has a high rayon content, nylon (as polyester pills), and a smaller stitch gauge (which can be inferred from fabric recovery characteristics).

However, I will say that while Ponte does have good qualities, like stability and smoothing lines over untoned body...it also show fit flaws very apparently. This is where making a dress like this becomes slightly more challenging. In a looser fabric, sometimes the wrinkles are less noticeable or can even add to the look of a garment. But in a fitted dress like this, the wrinkles are not so great.

I tested this pattern for Designer Stitch. So, I started by making a muslin (or toile as Ann of Designer Stitch calls the first draft of a garment).  I didn't have enough Ponte on hand, and so ended up making my toile mainly using a stretch denim. Unfortunately, I learned that the characteristics of stretch denim are very different from Ponte. The stretch denim is a looser and more relaxed fabric and so other than seeing that I needed to add 1/2" in length to the bodice of the dress since I have a longer than average torso, it didn't really help.

Ignore my messy hair! Below is a fit photo for the toile. You can probably see that the top of the green color blocking is hitting above my natural waist. It should be right at the natural waist. So I ended up adding a half inch of length through all the panels just below the bust line. You may also be able to see that the dress is loose all over, but there is especially some loose fabric at my lower back.

So, after acquiring more Ponte at Joann's, I made another toile. This is anti-pill Ponte found near the athletic fabrics at my local Joann's. It was much more apparent in this remake about what needed to be done for fit. Look at the picture below and maybe you can find a few things that need fixing.

Ok, so to start with, I missed the instruction where the CB (center back) seam should be sewn at 5/8" instead of the standard 1/4" for the pattern. But, beyond that you can see all the excess fabric at my low back is accentuated in the Ponte. It does not look good. Whereas with the stretch denim, you could see the extra fabric there, but it didn't really look bad and wrinkled like this.

Another problem you might notice with the picture above is the wrinkle lines through the back sides at the bodice, and those lines resonate through the sleeves. It's just a bit too big for me there. I also want to point out that before adding the sleeves, those wrinkle lines were not there. It's super important for your toile to have all the pattern pieces you want to have in your final garment. Below is the picture without sleeves. No wrinkles!

The excess fabric at the lower back called for a sway back adjustment. I made a large dart across the back, but misunderstood as it was my first time making this adjustment, and put it in the wrong place! This placement changes the lines of the color blocking in the dress as you can see below. It did help the fabric in that area smooth out, but made the color block shorter in the back.

So I removed that stitching and redid it above the waist panels.

Keep in mind that when making alterations, you should always do only one thing at a time. If you look closely at the video above, taking the excess fabric from the mid back took some of the lines out from beneath the arms.

From here, I took in the side seams  a bit between the waist and hip and also along the side seams from the bust to bicep. At this point, my final was okayed by the designer and so I seam ripped the back two center panels out of the dress and cut two new ones with the wedge from the sway back adjustment removed.

I will say along the way I encountered a few other obstacles with this dress. Originally I had planned on white for the L shaped color blocked panels and then had to remove the two I inserted after realizing that they were see through. I also struggled a bit with making the 90 degree turn on L's as the fabric there will become puckered if they aren't done right. And lastly, matching up the color blocking along the side seams was difficult, and I ended up basting those areas with the sewing machine before using the serger to finish those seams. Summed up, me and my seam ripper became very friendly during this time.

But, I am proud of myself for persisting and finishing the garment. I learned a lot about fit and about how to alter a dress for my specific body. I also learned more about fabrics and even some new sewing techniques. I'd never done a v-neck neckline in the way that this pattern has you do that where the neckband seam line is aligned with the shoulder seam and the v is made with a small stitch at the center front.

If you are a more experienced sewist, I'm sure you will sew this up with no problems. If you are a confident beginner or intermediate sewist, this will be a fun challenge for you I'm sure! You can see the rest of the beautiful tester dresses on the Designer Stitch website HERE.

As always, feel free to ask questions or leave comments below. 

Happy Sewing!

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