Review of the Elsie Dress by Emma Yochim

The other day I finished a sewing a dress from a new pattern. As a new sewist finding and following patterns, I’m offering an honest review of the Elsie Dress by Emma Yochim and others. Elsie is a playful and youthful dress. It’s easily customizable to fit various aesthetics like light academia, classic academia, or art academia. Or if your little one has a dress with a Peter Pan style collar this is a great Mommy version to make. So here’s my review of the Elsie Dress Pattern by Emma Yochim.

Pattern Review of the Elsie Dress

The Elsie Dress Pattern is reasonably priced and offers an array of sizes. I was able to quickly download, cut, and assemble the pattern pieces. I am still getting used to assembling these printed patterns. Reprinting them and cut a different size when compared to the large scale paper patterns you purchase is really nice. The pattern uses eight pieces in two different fabrics: main fabric for the dress, and a smaller piece of accent fabric for the collar. You’ll also need a few buttons and a bit of interfacing.

The Instructions

I downloaded the Emma’s instructions for the dress but didn’t print them to save ink and paper. Instead, I was able to simply reference them whenever I needed. Overall I found that the pattern was easy to understand. There were only two points where I needed some additional clarification or guidance. Both of these were more due to my dismal understanding of sewing dresses rather than any fault of the pattern. Also, Emma Yochim has created a video walk through of her making the actual dress. This YouTube upload was all I needed to understand the step and proceed with project.

This Pattern Taught Me a Lot

First, patterns do not owe you a break down of the skills needed to complete them. I chose to put these instructions into my patterns for a few different reasons. However, I don’t have to and neither did Emma. This pattern had good clarity and the supporting video taught me a few things. One of these was how to use bias tape to finish a neckline.

My body is always a bit between sizes. Finding the right size to cut is always a bit of guesswork. This pattern fit me pretty well. There are a few spots where it’s a bit tight but I’m starting to think that it’s the fabric and my seam allowances that make it so. I used a corduroy and it got a bit bulky along the gathers. I love it though and I plan to remake the pattern with a lighter summer weight fabric to wear all summer long. If it comes out right then I’ll make my little one something to match!

Thank you Emma for a great pattern and for helping me level up my sewing!