Tackling the Terror

The terror--otherwise known as Simplicity pattern #4244--is not as scary as it seems at first.

At first glance, one hopes this pattern is a "polonaise" style overdress with a simple trained skirt underneath. No. It is a "one piece" garment constructed in a manner that, at first, appears hopelessly complicated. One can understand why this pattern went out of print in 2006 and was not kept in the book for very long. Too many sewists gave up and others were too afraid to bother (I was one of them, hence why I did not even think about picking this up until now). 

But, you will see that the majority of the so-called complication in this pattern relates to the narrowness of the instructions (showing you the trees, but the not the forest) and the overly intricate method in the trimmings. If your real interest in this pattern is in the overall shape and not so much the decoration on it (as was the case with me) you quickly see that it is not complicated at all. 

Alterations

I really wanted to make this pattern true to the original instructions, for the purposes of reviewing it, but there were some alteration I just had to make. For one, the pattern does not call for any interfacing on the torso portions of the bodice; it is just fashion fabric and lining. Unless you are using a particularly thick fashion fabric, I think this will result in a thin, flimsy garment. As you can see I added interfacing fabric to the torso section, ending at about hip level.

This is one of the front sections, with the upper portion handing off the edge of the table. As you can see, I added interfacing fabric and also white netting on the lower portion (hard to see). The pattern does NOT call for interfacing or netting. 

I also added lining on the lower portion to cover the netting.

 I will add more information as I keep going, but...I am sorry to say...I'm losing hope in this one. The pattern has a lot of problems, mostly relating to how the pattern itself and the image on the pattern cover just aren't meshing. Will update soon.