Welcome back! Setaria, or the 80s are back and I wasn’t aware until now!
Strolling around Pinterest, as one should do, a blazer dress appeared in my feed and I thought to myself: “Girl, why not try to sew something out of your comfort zone?”
The 80s were the years of huge jackets, shoulder pads, huge backcombed hair so I said to myself that such a staple could be a great addition to my wardrobe!
The pattern
Mood Fabrics was that website that made my wish come true, as this is their pattern, the Setaria Dress.
Mood Fabrics needs no introductions, but for those of you who don’t know, Mood Fabrics is the American dream shop for fabrics. It’s located in New York City, behind Times Square and it’s a paradise for fabric buying. And what do they do in addition to selling fabrics? They offer you their patterns for free and they are all very appealing: really fashion, on-trend patterns, graded in various sizes and they come without instructions.
The Setaria pattern comes in which sizes?
The Setaria dress comes in US sizes 0-30 and my opinion is this: on one hand, it’s a great opportunity for everybody to sew a fashionable garment, on the other hand, I think it lacks a bit on grading and their accuracy. Why do I say that?
Well, if you look closely at the photos the ease on the front sleeve is HUGE. I don’t know or think that all those centimeters are wanted, but one thing is for sure: they’re too much to handle. The difference that you have between the shoulder center and the armpit on the sleeve and the shoulder center and the armpit on the bodice is something around 13 cm, so that’s really way too much.
I do feel though that the offered sizes for that specific pattern (I haven’t tried any other patterns from them) might be way too much. As a consequence, you cannot really manage the sleeve ease when grading.
Which size I chose?
The peculiarity of the Setaria dress is that it is a blazer dress. This means it looks like a classical double-breasted blazer and it is short. Like REAL short. Well, at least for me and I’m 178 cm. I went for a size 16-18, mainly because of my hips and, being the smartest pal that I am (SPOILER: not in this case) I added just 5 cm more to the hem. The result? I cannot sit. So that you picture how short that is.
And now, off to talk about my size. I’ve chosen the 16-18 cause I was in a hurry (another tiny SPOILER: NO HURRY WHEN CHOOSING YOUR SIZE) and the result is an oversize blazer, not a dress. If I really wanted a dress, I should have done a 12-14.
Now the Setaria dress sits in my wardrobe as an oversize blazer! It’s ready to be worn over skinny dresses or shorts so that it can steal the scene from all the outfits. And of course, receive the love it very much deserves!
A bit of technique
For my fabric choice, I went for a green emerald cady bought from Essebitex Tessuti in Carpi. I paired it to a leopard flowerful satin I had in my stash for years. God, just the perfect choice for this blazer!
What do you think about sewing something out of my comfort zone? Was it worth it?
Fancy to see what I sewed for myself? You can find it here!
See ya!
You can find me on Facebook or Instagram looking for DiNuvoleDiCuori!
Cover image: Nicoletta Valdisteno Fotografia
Autore
Seamstress for passion. Pink grapefruit and cedrata lover. Welcome!