Today I have a pattern review of the Tilly and the Buttons Bettine Dress, my first ever Tilly pattern. I had wanted this pattern for a while and I love my first finished version.
I used a duvet cover for the dress, assigning the llama print to the skirt and the flower print for the bodice. I figured a whole llama dress might be a little much, plus I liked the contrast with the pretty flower.
I made a size 3 in this pattern and it fits lovely with the exception of a slightly snug skirt. I am slightly bigger on bottom so this wasn't a surprise (especially in a non stretch fabric) and it was easily fixed by using a 1cm seam allowance instead of a 1.5cm as the pattern calls for. The next size would have been too large in the bodice so this slight alteration was great. I do worry though that Tilly and the Buttons patterns might not fit those who wear larger sizes as I'm normally a size 8 and was between the sizes 3 and 4.
The actual dress is lovely, I adore the shape and easy construction. It's a great year round dress, just switch out your fabrics according to the season! Pockets are always a great feature and these are a really lovely flattering style of pocket. Overall I had no trouble with the dress other than the actual instructions....
I feel like I'm going to be the only one to ever say this but honestly, I really didn't like the instructions in this pattern. I've only ever heard how easy Tilly's instructions are to follow and how great they are for beginners so it was a surprise when I read the booklet that came with the pattern as I was sewing. My issue wasn't that the instructions weren't helpful enough, it was just that there was so much information for each step. Every step had a huge paragraph of writing so it was difficult to see at a glance (which is all I want to do as I know the basic construction) what the step actually was. I don't disagree that this could be helpful for a complete beginner although I'd argue that it's still a lot of information that could have been broken up more or written more concisely. Sew Over It are a great example of a pattern company who do instructions that are really beginner friendly without being too waffly. Also I found the pictures misleading and confusing on occasions but that might be because my head was already trying to process the huge amounts of information in each step. This is really off-putting for me as it really made sewing the dress slower. I would read through the whole step twice just to be able to pick out what it's actually telling me from all the superfluous information.
I bought the printed version of this pattern and I was pleased to see how high the quality was for the whole thing, it's really well presented and lovely to have good quality paper to trace from. The theme and colours are super pretty also.
Overall I'm happy with this dress and I would consider another Tilly, maybe just reading the instructions before hand so I don't have such an issue with the instructions whilst sewing.
Thank you for reading!
Happy sewing sweethearts,
Jessica x
