Frock Flops
Sometimes you overcome fit issues to be stopped by style ones
We’ve seen this film before. I have a wedding to go to. I want to make a dress for the wedding. I make the dress and go to the wedding.
While we started off with a familiar narrative there is a huge plot twist so let’s get into it.
The Set Up
In March of 2025 I bought a bunch of fabric from the closing of Jo-Ann’s sale (UGH). Mostly focusing on materials that are a little outside of my comfort zone. I bought 2.5yds of a light sage green (light peridot) 100% polyester satin fabric and 2.5yards of a similar shade of green sparkle tulle dotted with pearls.
I didn’t have a plan but I thought maybe they could be pretty together or I could make a nice dress with just the satin.
The Plan
Fast forward to a month ago when I am making decisions for what to wear to a friend’s wedding that is in mid-May.
I decided to go a little bit outside of my comfort zone and sew the Cowl Dress by Kiana Bonolo. I had enough of the green satin and it would be a relatively simple sew in comparison to the slightly more involved wedding guest dress patterns I’ve done in the past.
Sewing the Cowl Dress
A couple of weekends ago I decided to make a mock up of the top part of the dress to get an idea of the fit before I cut into the real fabric. I used some of my leftover white rayon challis that I had from all of the lining work I did for the Mexico trip.
This is where we are seeing early signs of trouble but I think that it is fine and continue to carry on.
The pattern was released four years ago and I know that the designer has improved her set up since then but here are all of my issues with this pattern:
There are no illustrations, only photos
The photos are taken somewhat far overhead
The photos are dark/not well lit
The photos are clearly taken still images from the video tutorial so some of them are blurry
The fabric being used to demonstrate instructions is a dark red (see pattern photo above) making it hard to see.
The instructions are poorly written and are hard to follow
It is not marked out when/where there are view differences within the instructions.
For example, there are three strap views and the prep/attachment instructions are in the middle of the pattern without even bold type to signify there are different views.
I considered not including this photo because obviously I look insane but I think that if you can’t see it then it is hard to understand how not right the fit was.
This is technically after I tried to make adjustments and the cowl neck hung so low it was down to my belly button. The gap was so wide that if I didn’t have anything underneath I would have fallen out of the darn thing.
I was making the largest size of this pattern (another issue, why am I the largest size?) and when I look at photos that people who have made it have posted (who all look great!) I see no one above a size 10 (out of 14). I know this designer doesn’t pattern test and is a very small size herself. That wasn’t necessarily a deal breaker because I know she has a fashion textiles degree and in theory I think they would have learned how to grade patterns. However, I now have concerns about her grading.
I did solicit thoughts from my advanced sewing friend who gave some suggestions for how to make the cowl neck less deep. But I also reached out to the designer. Who was helpful and her suggestion to shorten the cowl at the sides did end up improving the depth.
Fast forward to this past weekend where I thought I had conquered the fit issue and could go smooth sailing into my final project.
The dress is 90% done, all I needed to do was to install the zipper. I tried on the finished dress and…hated it.
The front seam for the split leg looked strange and unsymmetrical across my torso. The shiny-ness of the fabric only highlighted every seam making it look as if the fabric was being pulled across my body when in reality, it was fitted correctly or was loose.
The cowl neck which laid nicely in my prototypes, would not lay nicely once I did all of the final stitching with the satin fabric.
I felt defeated, frustrated, and plain old ugly. I kept wondering if the dress really was good or was “skinny the outfit.”
At this point I tried on my black floral dress and found myself thinking “this is a nice dress! You look good in this dress!”
The Pivot
So I decided to go fully nuclear and make a new dress with the dress I have almost finished.
I decided to make view B of the Magnolia Dress by Deer and Doe with the same style as my black floral. A sheer overlayer with a solid lining. With sheer flutter sleeves instead of long ones.
Ripping apart a dress I just finished and squeezing a whole new pattern out of the remains was a little satisfying I’m not going to lie.
Surprisingly I remembered all of the little things I forgot to do/messed up the first time I made this dress pattern. I remembered to cut out enough skirt panels. I remembered how to sew the tulle bodice to the solid bodice so it’s right sides out.
We were grooving right along. Finished the bodice and decided to sew the skirt panels together all on the same day I already had been sewing for hours.
A second failure
After pinning the bodice and front skirt together to get an idea of what it will look like before I got into the waistband etc. I “put it on” and felt just eh about it. It was nice but I was unsure.
My husband said it was better than the first one but after much pushing he said he wasn’t sure if it felt “costume-y.”
The final nail in the coffin.
How the story ends
A few months ago my very advanced sewing friend was shopping for a formal dress for a wedding she was going to. I asked her why she wasn’t going to make her own dress. She said that she doesn’t enjoy that kind of sewing and doesn’t feel like she has to make everything. It was the little kernel of wisdom that was waiting for me at the end of this frustrating road of sewing.
I decided I would buy a dress.
Drew and I decided to go the the mall the next day and after shopping around I ended up finding a ready to wear dress that I liked. The straps need to be shortened a little bit but otherwise it fits great. Drew picked up a sport coat and we compliment each other nicely.
The fate of the dress
I don’t hate the second version that I had started. It will be something that I finish. But it might truly end up being more of a costume piece. Something I finish a little bit later because I want to focus on sewing for our Ireland trip.
When I reflect on what went wrong I think it was a combination of three factors:
I do think the pattern does have a bit of a grading issue with the larger sizes
The fabric was too shiny and it highlighted every seam
The style is not something I am actually comfortable wearing
Even after trying out similar styles at the mall I had the same conclusion, something I probably should have done before starting this journey
I am interested in trying her patterns again since I do own a couple (the others are more recent releases) but I will do so with caution.
This is the end of my story. My office is a disaster and there is glitter everywhere.
Let’s meet back here and discuss Ireland making?