The Victoire Sundress - In Hopes of Summer.

The weather here keeps flirting with spring - it's snowing one day, then 80 degrees the next! Literally. It makes it a challenge to get dressed in the morning - you never know if you're going to be freezing or sweating! I love spring, it's one of my favorite seasons, but  I'm done with the cold - warm - snow - hot - cold again  pattern we've had this year. At this point I am dreaming of summer; warmth, sun, green trees, sundresses - and hopefully more predictable weather! So, this week, in hopes that the weather will take a hint, I made a sundress. A real, honest-to-goodness sundress that looks cute, can be dressed up for formal occasions or dressed down for everyday wear, and will keep me comfortable on hot days.

While scrolling through Facebook a couple weeks ago, I saw a post that piqued my interest. Laela Jeyne Patterns was in need of testers for their new La Femme pattern collection. As I'm always interested in testing new PDF patterns, I decided to check out the new designs. I looked through a page of pretty dress, shirt, and swimsuit patterns and immediately one pattern caught my eye. The Victoire dress. 

The Victoire Dress is a button front sundress that can be made either mini or tea length, and has inseam pockets! The pockets excited me, but they weren't what really interested me in his pattern. No, what really drew me to this dress was the bodice. The bodice is made up of a midriff piece and shaped cup pieces. This is a look I really like, but have never been able to make for myself. For a design like this you really need the bodice to fit you exactly. If the cups are too large or too small, the bodice will be uncomfortable and not look right at all, that is if it's even wearable!

  

Most patterns are drafted with a single bust cup size in mind - and it's never mine. The Victoire dress, however, is different. The pattern includes 5 different cup sizes; A, B, C, D, and E/DD! So you can make a bodice with cups that will fit and look good on you, without having to do any massive pattern altering. This, this, is the reason I decided to test the Victoire Dress. I really needed a cupped bodice pattern in my collection that would actually fit me, and the Victoire looked like the perfect one!   

Once I was accepted to test the pattern, I looked through my fabric stash to find a suitable material. I quickly unearthed this pretty floral, light and drapey, polyester blend fabric I bought at Wal-Mart last month. It was a fabric I liked and would be happy to wear, but one I wouldn't be heartbroken over wasting if this dress didn't turn out the way I hoped it would. At this point I was still a little skeptical, not sure if the cupped bodice design would actually fit me the way it was supposed to. Well, I needn't have worried.

I made a quick mock-up of the bodice to test out the cup size I thought I needed. All looked good, so I plunged ahead and cut out my dress, then sewed it together the next afternoon. Once the dress was mostly done, just needing buttons, buttonholes, and a hem, I tried it on, pinning it together the front. Did it fit? Did it look good?

It fit!! It actually fit well and was flattering!! At this point I excitedly picked out the perfect buttons from my stash and finished the dress!

I had a new sundress, now I just needed a hot, sunny day to wear it. The weather obliged. Last Thursday the temps soured to 80 degrees, so I happily wore my new dress all day, and was very comfortable.

With the side seam pockets, included in the pattern, I had a place to store my phone and pocket knife. This made the dress very convenient to wear. For just a little extra convenience and comfort, I sewed bra cups into the the dress bodice, between the lining and the outer layer. Thus, I don't have to wear this dress with an uncomfortable strapless bra! In my book, that's a win! 

Now, the pattern doesn't include instructions for how to install bra cups in your bodice, but it's pretty simple to figure out yourself.

If you're interested in having a cupped bodice dress pattern to add to your collection, I encourage you to check out the Victoire Dress! It's on sale until this Friday for only $7!

And hopefully, if you make yourself a sundress from this pattern, your weather will actually cooperate so you can wear it! Here, it doesn't seem like that will be the case anytime soon. After our one day of heat last week, it got cold again. And it actually snowed again yesterday. One day, hopefully, spring will actually, really truely, come - but I am slowly losing hope in that!