Entice Me Dress

Entice Me Fitted Dress – Pattern Emporium

I started this sewing journey almost 4 years ago and I’ve learned so much since then.

I went from watching YouTube videos on how to sew a pillowcase dress to pretty much only wearing made by me items. (This still blows my mind, btw).

But I believe that the biggest lesson I’ve learned is to accept my shape and body and to dress it the way it is at the moment, instead of wishing I could wear something if only I looked a certain way…

This has been a battle my whole life and I’m still not quite there yet, but have definitely improved by heaps and bounds since I’ve started this sewing journey.

Proof of that is how much I’ve been enjoying making bodycon dresses and embracing all my jiggling and wiggling bits. 😛

Turns out the “secret” isn’t changing our bodies or refraining from wearing certain shapes, the key is having the right FIT!

Because of the way my body is constructed I’ve always had a problem with RTW fitted dresses. If it fit around my hips, it looked weird and frumpy around the bust and shoulders. If it fit on the top, woven dresses wouldn’t even go around the hips, and knit dresses would be super tight and ride up with every step.

I’m 43yo and it took me this long to realize that the problem wasn’t my body, but the garment itself.

A well fitting (fitted) dress is like magic.

Kate from Pattern Emporium shows us that with this new fitted dress pattern she just released, the Entice Me.

The tester team had a variety of shapes, sizes, and ages and I won’t be lying when I say that every.single.one looked AMAZING in their dress.

Most of us had to step way out of our comfortzones for the test, but it was oh so worth it!

Kate is a fitting wizard and has the gift of teaching, and this is reflected in her pattern drafting and instructions writing.

The pattern has a ton of options and is super easy to hack-mash-customize to your heart’s desire.

LENGTH

Entice comes with 4 skirt length options: Maxi (ankle), Midi (calf), Knee and Mini.

NECKLINES

The pattern comes with front and backlines that we can mix and match. FUN!

Both Front and Back have the choices of Crew, High, Midi and Low.

SLEEVES

There are plenty to choose from: Cut-away Sleeveless, Wide set sleeveles, Cap, Flared, Short, 3/4 and long.

The pattern features a horizontal seam at the back, separating bodice and skirt. This helps with the shaping and makes a sway back adjustment easier, if necessary.

You also get the option of cutting the back bodice and back skirt on the fold or to have a center seam. That’s purely for fabric saving or customization purposes, it won’t affect the fit of the dress.

Let me show you the ones I’ve made!

For reference, all dresses are a size 12 for bust and waist, graded to size 18 at the hips and the longer dresses are graded down to a size 14 from the knee down.

AS PER PATTERN DRESSES

These are the ones where I followed the pattern to the letter, no mods at all.

1 – The “Muslin”

Muslin is between quote marks because after adjusting it, it a 100% wearable, perfect fitting dress.

The options chosen for this one were:

• Low front and Low back
• Cut-away sleeveless
• Knee-length
• Center seam on both bodice and skirt
• Fabric: a ribbed knit that feels like a soft scuba

This is the first one I’ve made, and as you can see it from the photo on the left, it didn’t fit perfectly straight away.

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I had some wrinkles and waves on the side seams.
Remember when I said that Kate is a wizard and a great teacher? The instructions have a troubleshooting area to help with these types of issues. I needed to adjust for my hip dip, and after a simple matter of smoothing the lines to match my body and giving more space where my hips need it, no more lines and wrinkles!

After figuring out what I needed to adjust for my body shape, it was just a matter of bringing that to the pattern piece. Now I can make a perfect fitting dress every single time.

I love this dress!
Also, how amazing is it that we can totally transform the look and vibe of the dress by just changing footwear?

My heart loves a good heel, but my feet are definitely team sneakers! haha

2 – Z is for Zebra and for Zaftig

I’m slightly obessesed with this one.

• Cut-away sleeveless
• Midi neck and High back
• Midi lengh
• Back bodice cut on fold
• Back skirt with center seam
• Fabric: Cotton Lycra and Mesh

Wondering where the Mesh comes in?
Well, I’m glad you asked…. 😀

Boom!

Gah! I LOVE how this one turned out!

I’m a B cup and don’t really need support, so I’m ok with going braless, but this would also be super cute with a nice lacey bra or bodysuit underneath. It’s just a super fun and sassy surprise and I’m here for it. <3

3 – Simple and Chic

This is an alternative version for a LBD.
I feel this color is super neutral and the snakeskin print takes it up a notch. This dress can be worn in many different occasions, just by switching shoes and accessories.

• Cap sleeves
• High neck and Low back
• Knee length
• Back bodice and skirt cut on fold
• Fabric: Ponte

I find the high neck/low back so elegant!

I must say that the high neck comes up pretty high on the neck though if you have issues with stuff touching your neck, this one is definitely not for you. 😉

Those sleeves are my favorite! Cap sleeves during summer and 3/4 sleeves during winter, that’s my jam.

PATTERN MASHES/HACKS

Now we’re getting into FUN territory.
If you’ve been here on the blog before you may already know that transforming a pattern is one of my favorite things to do, especially when I love a pattern. Then I just can’t stop making them…

1 – V-Neck

How fun is this one? 😀

I used the V-neck from the Keep It Simple Babe. A very simple mash, just a matter of transferring the neckline to the Entice Me.

• Short sleevees
• KISB neckline
• Mini Length
• Back bodice and skirt cut on fold
• Fabric: Cotton Lycra

This is a “long” mini, it’s about 5″ shorter than the knee length.
I managed to get this dress out of 1 meter of fabric, directional print and all! How fantastic is that?

This one is a definite summer staple!

2 – Hood and Side Slits

I know I keep repeating myself, but I LOVE this one!

I used the Hood from the Unwind, another pattern I’m obsessed with, and hacked some side slits.

• Cut-away sleeveless
• Unwind neckline+hood
• Maxi length
• Back bodice and skirt cut on fold
• Fabric: rib sweater knit

The side slits are pretty easy to make.
I finished the seam allowance with the serger and sewed the side seams on the sewing machine, stopping at the desired length. In this case, it was at the knee. I then pressed the SA open and finished the slit topstitching around it.

It’s important to remember to transfer the Unwind neckline to the dress bodice if you plan to use the hood. 😉

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3 – Skirt Hack

I loved the shape of this pattern so much that I just had to hack it to have it as a skirt as well.

This is a very simple hack as well.
I cut the pattern about 2″ above the waistline, sewed the side seams and sewed elastic around the waist, flipped it down and topstiched.

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A good secretary skirt is a must have and I didn’t have a black one. Problem solved! <3

I added the center seam to the back because I kinda like the look.

4 – Cowl back tops

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My hacked skirt needed some tops to go with it, and what’s simpler than just chopping the dress off to a top length? 😉

I forgot to mention above, but there’s an Add-on pattern for the Entice Me. A stunning Cowl back! It comes with 2 options: Draped and Subtle.

It’s such an elegant option!
Good news is that during the release this add-on will be FREE with the purchase of the dress pattern, so don’t miss out on that 😉

• Cap sleeves
• High neck
• Draped Cowl
• cut to a top length
• Fabric: slinky sweater knit

Seeing this photo reminds me to add: Even after adjusting the pattern piece, fabric choices are important when it comes to fit!

The Ponte I used for the skirt is stronger than the other fabrics, so it feels tighter and I ended up with a few wrinkles again due to that. I fixed it already but ended up not taking new pictures…

Just keep in mind that if you use fabrics with different strengths and recovery you may need to do some re-adjusting to the pieces.

I’ve been loving me some animal print lately and had some leftover scraps from the Ruby dress I’ve made (no blog post about it yet, but you can find it on my instagram) and this leopard print was perfect for an Entice Me top.

• Cut-away sleeveless
• Midi neck
• Draped Cowl
• cut to a top length
• Fabric Poly knit

This was my first time sewing a cowl to the back of a garment and it’s safe to say that it won’t be my last. It’s so sexy-chic, isn’t it?

I wanted to photograph the tops with other bottoms (they look fantastic with my Sashay Culottes and with jeans), but to be honest, this was a long shoot and I was just tired, so I didn’t. 🙁

I did pair the skirt with my favorite Make It Happen top and with a woven Unwind I also hacked.

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But I’ll tell you more about these tops some other time.
This post is already enormous as it is… lol

If you made it so far, or if you just scrolled down for the links 😉 , here they are:

ENTICE ME FITTED DRESS
COWL BACK ADD-ON – this one will be automatically be added to your account for FREE when you purchase the Entice Me Dress pattern. This sale goes through Sunday, July 19th.

Patterns used to mash/hack:

UNWIND SWEATER
KEEP IT SIMPLE BABE T-SHIRT

xxx
Livia

*this post contains affiliate links

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