Hello to all my old friends at the CSC. And to all of the new friends yet unknown. It has been 5 years since I last wrote a review here but I am back today, with a new pattern company that I found about a month ago and that I am pretty excited about, Stokx Patterns.
First of all, full disclosure. Lindy sent me the 7 Dress pattern free of charge after she reached out on Instagram looking for Plus sized women to try her expanded line of patterns. I did not make any promise of a review or blog post and as always my opinions are my own. I answered her call but she was looking for women with a 120 cm bust or larger to make her patterns. I was disappointed because I only have a 115 cm bust but I would have purchased this pattern anyway. She offered to make me an honorary plus sized model. Lol. Lindy is a transplanted Australian who lives and designs in Berlin and has a shop there.
Her patterns come in both English and German. If I am not mistaken she also sells on Etsy. She has her own sizing method and sizes range from her size 0 -12. That is a bust of 80-158 cm. Or is a bust of 36.5”-62”. And a hip from 93-153 cm. That is a hip of 36 1/2” -60”. There are several patterns I am anxious to try out. I love the coat pattern!
My measurements for your comparison are Bust 44.5” and Hip 46.5”. I wear a 38D bra in some brands and a 36E in another. In her patterns I chose to make the size 6 as it most closely matched my bust size. Once upon a time I was a real pear shaped plus sized woman. As I have aged that has changed as I have developed an apple belly. I also have a forward thrusting neck and a stooped forward back. I have what I call a hollow chest. I consider myself long waisted and very often I lengthen patterns in the torso. I am 5’7” tall and I have size 11 feet. I love sewing knits but I am not fond of cling in my knit outfits. I am 68 years old now and I figure I can bloody well wear wonderful and colourful clothes and I can get them to fit the way I want them to. To this end I no longer wear black. I won’t even buy black shoes. I only buy fabrics that speak to me and are of good quality! I only please myself. I am a selfish sewer and only sew for my grandchildren if I feel like it. Lately all they want is sweatpants and leggings.
On to my review of the 7 Dress! I loved the shape of this dress. This is a thoughtfully designed pattern. The one thing that Lindy says in all of her posts is that this dress does not cling to the midriff. It has slight negative ease at the bust but doesn’t cling under the bust. So it skims right over all of those lumps and bumps. And yet it still has great shaping. Lindy has designed this dress with lots of shaping in the sides of the pattern and is designed with a fairly high waist. I debated with myself if I should lengthen the torso and decided against this and trusted the designer. There is a bust dart in this knit pattern. It hits really nicely and is neither too high nor too low. The back of this dress is not cut on the fold and there is some shape to the back seam. This makes a particularly good fit across my broad back! So anyone who wants a knit dress without the cling this one is perfect.
My fabric is a panel print from Emmaonesock. As a Canadian shopper it becomes quite expensive to shop on line in the US with shipping and the dollar makes it very speedy. Only a special and wonderful fabric will make it to my shopping cart. And this one is. It is a Dutch print panel in a rayon spandex knit. It turns out that the panel was too narrow at the bottom for this pattern so I had to piece the panel on the sides. Not a perfect solution but since the panel had spoken loud and clear that it needed to be this dress I had to listen. This fabric is quite a solid feeling knit with good body, good stretch and great recovery, and not a thin wispy knit. This dress needs a fabric with a bit of substance. I love the fact it was a Klimt print as my last trip with my husband before his death was to Prague and we really enjoyed the Klimt exhibit together.
The pattern came in a PDF format by mail. I send it over to my local Staples for printing in the AO format but can also be printed on a home printer. All of the pieces lined up brilliantly and it was a joy to sew up. It is sewn together just like a regular Tshirt. Did I mention this dress has really really large inseam pockets! Very large. I knew I wanted this to be a summer dress so I would make it sleeveless and I wanted to lower the neckline. I did not raise the underarm at all, just left off the sleeve and I traced the neckline of a Tshirt I loved. I also checked the bust size against the same tshirt. I knew the pattern would fit well decided to not make a muslin. I used the formula of making the neckline binding at 7/8 of the finished neckline and the armcye. This usually works well for me but feel free to use any method that works for you. I shortened the longer length dress by about 2”. I made no other alterations to this first dress.
What have I learned from this dress? I found this dress slightly more broad shouldered than my body. If I put sleeves into this dress next time I will slightly narrow the shoulders. I will also do a hollow chest alteration. I think I will also try the shorter length dress.
This dress gets a 5 out of 5 for me for size inclusivity. It also gets a 5/5 for instructions and fit. Instructions are not wordy but just enough. It is a easy fit pattern with lots of hip room. It is certainly a well drafted and designed pattern and fits true to the measurement chart. I love it! I have lots of plans and thoughts on more ways to use this pattern. My sister is coveting the pattern and wants to make a mother of the groom dress. This dress has a straight hemline and can be made with border prints and panels. It also makes me want to try more of her patterns. So for me this pattern gets 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Do you have a blog, or some way of following you? I, too, am a plus-size sewer and live in Canada – Nova Scotia.
No blog. I am @grandmaelaine on Instagram
Beautiful fabric ! The dress fits you like a glove! It really is a great sew.
Very nice fabric! The dress fits you like a glove!
Love this! The fabric is fabulous, love the shape!
Thank you. I made a second dress last night. I made the shorter length and put in the sleeves. Short sleeves. I’ll post it later on the Facebook page when I get some pictures.
Hi Elaine – you may enjoy the blog of one of my favorite bloggers – The Insouciant Stitcher – we are both fans of the Kalyana style and our favorite dress pattern is Tessuti’s Eva Dress – the skirt is lovely. Love your blog – looking forward to reading more. Regards, Sandra
I actually follow her in Bloglovin.
Hi Elaine – you might enjoy reading the blog of one of my favorite bloggers – The Insouciant Stitcher. One of her favorite dress patterns – and mine – is Tessuti Eva Dress – the skirt has a beautiful shape – and we are both fans of the Kalyana style. Love your blog – Sandra
Hi Elaine – you might enjoy reading the blog of one of my favorite bloggers – The Insouciant Stitcher. One of her favorite dress patterns – and mine – is Tessuti Eva Dress – the skirt has a beautiful shape. Love your blog – Sandra
I wish you would have taken one photo with your hands by your side. I find it difficult to judge fit when one’s hands are jammed into pockets. That said, it does look good on you.
Are you on Instagram? I’m grandmaelaine over there. I’ll post one over there.
Great to see you back. You have a similar shape to myself and I love the way the dress sits on you.
It’s always easier to see how it will look on you by seeing it on someone else of similar shape.
So glad to see you posting again. We are close in age and body type, plus your makes have been very inspirational for me over the years. I have recently been back to check out your versions of TSW Liberty Shirt since I am getting ready to tackle it for myself. (Yes, late, very late, to the party…as usual.)
I checked out the Stokx website based on your recommendation. Oh my, am I ever intrigued and impressed. Lindy understands and utilizes the many-seams-equal-fitting-opportunities concept, to the max. These are NOT just some more indie skater-type generic patterns. I’m not big on pdfs, but am going to make an exception. Now to figure out which one…
Looking forward to more posts, Elaine!
I am pretty sure I going to do the coat next. I am going to make it a shorty jacket for the first one. I have a wonderful teal duffle fabric that has been in my stash for at least 20 years. Next years winter coat. She also has a new pattern coming soon. The BigPant.
Also look at her shirts. The back of them are pieced in interesting ways to give a better range of movement.
Thank you so much for posting your amazing dress, and pointing us in the direction of a very talented designer. I saw several patterns that excite me, and these days that’s rare, since so many pattern companies seem to copy each others designs, and if you’re a plus size, it’s basically just a smock. I have a couple pieces of fabric bbn in my stash from Emmaonesock as well, but these days order mostly from Fabric Mart, but always keeping my eyes open for others. Thanks again, you did a great job!
I know how you feel. I found her by accident watching sewing Utube videos. A UK sewer mentioned her patterns. I was excited the moment I saw her patterns. I stalked Lindy on Instagram and Facebook. I also read all of her blog posts and knew I had to try her patterns.
Gorgeous dress and very useful review. Great to see you posting again Elaine!
Thank you. Good to be back.
Thanks Elaine for your thorough assessment of this pattern .I love your fabric and I also have an adversion of black. My dad forbade me to wear black as” it is only worn by women who have given up on their self worth”. I think I will try this design myself.
Thankyou Melinn
When will be able to purchase this pattern? I have several pieces of fabric in my stash that are calling out for this dress. By the look of the pattern it addresses some issues I have with plus size garment patterns. Too many of them fit like tents and although there are too many bumps under there, I do have some shape that would improve the look of the garment
Dear Kath,
Lindy here
The 7 dress is already up on the http://www.stokx-patterns.com site.
There are several patterns that create a nice silhouette without being tight.
Another suggestion would be the Skater top or the Skater dress. The Kim dress is also a go to pattern.
It has been tricky to collect the photos I need to reflect the size range of my styles. We have been in ongoing strict lockdown. Fortunately, I met Elaine and she kindly took some really great photos. I am still collecting- we can talk.
Greetings
Sorry, I just checked the website using your link. It’s not there right now. I’m very interested. I’ll check back. Hope you’re not missing out on any sales.
Thank you Kath, ?? For your feedback
I just tried it and it worked- perhaps it is a regional thing? Just so you know there are more styles on Instagram @stokxpatterns
Try http://www.stokxpatterns.com
I had the same experience when I typed the 7 dress, but if you type the 7dress (no space) it pops right up.
There is a link to the 7 dress in my review. It doesn’t appear when you open up the general link for patterns. If you open the menu and click on the dresses it is there.
https://stokx-patterns.com/products/the-7dress
Got it! Thank you for the link.
I dont see a sleeveless option in the pattern drawings. Was this something you did? Did you have to change the sleeve opening?
I just decided to leave off the sleeves. I did not make any changes to the pattern because of that. I do not have any problems with bra peekage. I made my own self binding with leftover fabric but you could use ribbing if you wanted.
Appreciate you sharing your success, as well as your measurements and alterations, that’s so helpful when trying to figure out the fit on a new pattern!
Great review, thank you. This certainly looks like something I need to wear. We are of similar size and age and I’ve missed your reviews. Welcome back.
Love this dress on you. Well done. Great to see you back–have missed your blog posts over the last years. I too live in the middle of nowhere Canada–in a small Saskatchewan town.
I’m in Regina now
Thank you for taking the.time and energy to share your well-written review. Fantastic dress that looks fabulous on you. I so often settle for clothing that doesn’t bring me joy. I am inspired to create something I love.
I have so many fabrics tucked into my “too precious to cut into pile”. If I don’t use them up my kids will likely dump it in a recycle bin. Sew what makes you happy and sew for who you are right now.
Wow!! What an amazing look! I’m loving this! 🙂
Wonderful post and fabulous dress, very flattering on you. I too am in Canada, Ontario – I sew in isolation and loved reading your post. Thank you. Jan
Isn’t fun when you realize you can have what you want ?! Love the dress and your fabric, both look fabulous on you!
I have to add that your review was excellent as well. I appreciate all the details.
Looks gorgeous on you, Elaine! And fabulous review of the pattern.
I love this look. The fabric is perfect as used in this dress. Fits well.
This is a winner.
Thank you Elaine! May it be the first of many!! All the very best! You have made my day !! Xx
This is wonderful. You knocked it right out of the park with this one! Lots of possibilities for this very flattering pattern. I’m going to give them a look! Love the Klimt print. Be proud of yourself! You made a wonderful job of this! All the best.