I am in love with this pattern – officially! The submissions for Sewing Indie Month for May ended on the 4th June, and only 1 Snowball had been submitted, my Summer Butterfly one. I’m really surprised, this is a great pattern. If you’d thought about it & then decided not to buy it, let me change your mind again.
It has a great shape. That curved, high waistline gives great definition, helped by the fabulous seams that curve from the neck down. They line up with the skirt seams which flare out at the hem. The silhouette is just gorgeous. You could wear this to a slap-up dinner and never feel the need to open the button on your trousers or skirt! 🙂
The zip in the centre back seam goes in effortlessly using Yuki’s instructions. The neckline and armholes are faced all in one & sewn together rather like the way you’d construct a waistcoat, so there are no loose ends and floppy bits. This adds structure to the top of the bodice, all of which helps to hold that fabulous shape.
As a dress to wear in the office in a lightweight wool, or out to dinner in something glamourous, the Snowball is a great choice. It has just enough 60s flare to be a bit retro-chic & plenty of modern styling to make it thoroughly contemporary.
Have I done enough yet? Are you tempted? This version used the remnants of the printed cotton canvas I used for Le Bellatrix Blazer français. There really wasn’t much left, and I struggled to get all the bodice pieces and the facings out. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get great pattern placement with the Eiffel Tower, so this bodice has lots of lables and crowns instead! The cotton canvas is definitely not as structured as the cotton twill used for the Summer Snowball. It’s softer and moves better, but is still perfectly suited to keeping the shape of the bodice. The facings were interfaced with a fine sheer polyester fusible from Gill Arnold, no so heavyweight intervention there either.
The skirt used a slightly charcoal-black linen from my stash. I thought it would work better with the print, not being heavily black. It was a little lightweight, however and let too much light in! So I lined the skirt with some black cotton lawn, also from the stash. The hem is bound with black bias binding & I hand stitched it in place using herringbone stitch. The lining’s hem was double turned & machine stitched. I also overlocked everything. No bound skirt seams this time! Whilst I do love that finish, it takes an awfully long time and lots of time was something I did not have this week.
I added the same 3cm to the bottom of the skirt as I had done for the Summer Snowball, cutting the lining the normal length so it didn’t stick out. After completing the Summer Snowball & seeing it on Daughter No2 properly, I decided I probably should have made it a little smaller in the waist area. So with this version I switched to the 34 from about mid-way down the bodice and continuing into the skirt. As you can see, it now has a much more fitting shape, one Daughter No2 prefers. I guess that means I’ll be taking Summer Snowball apart a little so it can be taken in. It will be worth it though. She goes back to school next week for about a month now that her exams from Lower 6th are finished and she definitely wants to show off her new dresses!
So what do you think? Are you up for trying it out? Just to say, I am not being paid to push this pattern! I just love it & really want to see other versions online! Go on, give it a go! 🙂
One more thing – I’m entering this dress in The Monthly Stitch’s Indie Pattern Month Dresses Week competition (phew, that’s a bit of a mouthful!) & I’d really appreciate it if you would vote for me! 🙂
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 