This was such an unexpectedly fun (and quick!) dress to make! I was moderately impressed by the Sointu Tee by Named Patterns a few years ago when I made it while filming in Savannah, GA, eventually pairing it with my Sasha Trousers, and while I love the way it looks and fits, for some reason it’s just not the first garment I reach for in my closet. Perhaps because I made it in a really nice merino blend from The Fabric Store which makes the top very warm and cozy, contradicting the fact that it is essentially a short sleeved blouse designed for warmer weather. The window of opportunity to wear this “tee” in the fabric I made it from is pretty small. But still, in terms of the design elements, I love the silhouette of the dramatic sleeves, the cinched in waist, and the big belt. As always with Named patterns, the garment is kind of huge on me, even though I always make the smallest sizes offered, so if you are petite and checking out this brand for the first time, one of the (many) suggestions I would make would be to size down a bit, if possible.
Anyways, I hadn’t made the Sointu Tee for myself again after my gray wool version, but I stumbled across a photo of Corrine Bailey Rae on pinterest wearing a dress that seemed to be a dead ringer for the Sointu Tee as a foundational pattern. I was drawn to Rae’s dress because of the supple, pillowy looking fabric (and also that color!), the slightly oversized fit, and the super thick belt that managed to pull the whole look together. I also loved that sweet, simple, yet effective neckline. The actual details of the dress look about as complicated as a paper bag, and yet it’s still such a chic, elegant and fun looking garment!
I shared the image on my IG stories a while back, explaining that I was looking for comparable patterns to match with some inspo outfits, and although I had a few ideas in mind for some of the garments, I was interested in hearing what suggestions others had to offer. For this particular dress I was eyeing either the Sointu Tee as a hack or the Sew House 7 Teahouse Dress, but then an IG follower sent me a photo of the dress she hacked out of the Sointu Tee pattern to great effect and it looked terrific, so I was sold!
I initially hoped to find a pastel-colored fabric to work with for this project like the one from the inspo pic, but I found a really cool black twill ponte at The Fabric Store instead, which seemed like a smart idea. If a project you haven’t made before goes south, it’s way easier to cover up any flaws in black fabric than it is in pastel mint green! I did have a couple of flaws that I needed to cover up, but nothing too horrible.
The Sointu Tee is a very simple project to make and it’s great for beginners. As mentioned above, one of the things I don’t really love about Named Patterns is the fact that their fit tends to be so generous, and part of this is because they rarely specify what fabric a design should be made out of – I guess maybe they want sewists to be able to make them out of whatever fabric they want, whether it’s knit or woven? But I am of the mindset that not all designs translate well from knit to woven, so the drafting should be adjusted accordingly- the result is that the smallest size in all the patterns I have made from this line have been entirely too big. However, this works very well in the favor of a newer sewist- more ease drafted into the pattern means less headache trying to get each part to fit perfectly. This pattern has no sleeves to set in, and only two main pieces to work with- the belt, loops, sleeve and neck bindings are simply smaller rectangular pieces that won’t require any fitting or adjusting for most projects.
For my hack, I made the following changes:
- added a seam allowance on the front piece so that it is no longer cut on the fold; this was the best way for me to achieve the split-open neck detail on the front.
- extended both front and back pieces to my desired length (about 18″) and widened the side seams of both pieces to around 1/2 inch at the hem, grading to nothing at the waist- there is so much ease drafted into the tee that I didn’t need to add any more around the hips and thighs, but I did extend outwards a bit to keep the flow of the side seams intact.
- adjusted neckline on the front so that it was slightly lower and accommodated the neckline detail (cut a narrow ‘V’ out of the top 3 inches).
- widened belt and belt loops.
Unfortunately I made a few mistakes along the way despite my insistence on what an easy hack this is to complete. I forgot to interface my belt, which may or may not be a problem in the long run- the ponte is pretty thick and bulky so I don’t imagine it will stretch out considerably during wear, but it’s still something I should have done. I also tried to top stitch each side of the front center seam of the dress as illustrated in the inspo pic, which would work on some fabrics I’m sure, but not this one- it made the seam wavy and warped and I had to unpick the stitches and then steam the crap out of it to get it back to the original shape. Thankfully the top stitching around the neckline detail laid down beautifully and didn’t need to be ripped out. However, the next time I make this, I will allow for extra seam allowance at the front center pieces so that I can make a wider band of topstitching down the front, as in the inspo pic- I love that detail but didn’t pay attention to it properly to make it work for my garment. I didn’t interface the sleeve bindings because my fabric was stable enough to not need it, but depending on the fabric used, you can keep or omit it (I have seen other sewist’s comment that this was an unnecessary detail so I think most people skip it like I did).
Other than that, the dress came together incredibly quickly. The most time I spent on it (after all that unpicking of the front center wavy topstitching!) was hand sewing the blind hem- and FYI, because the dress has a slight curve to the bottom depending on what you did with your lengthened seam lines, you might need to baste the hem first before sewing it down to ease in that extra fabric. I also had to adjust the position of the belt loops to my liking- I ended up raising mine to be really close to the under the arms because I don’t like the belt hitting my actual waist, I prefer it a bit higher for this silhouette, right around my ribcage.
And that’s it! I was very lucky to have my talented friend, fellow actor and spin instructor, Jess Nurse, take these blog photos for me when we got together to do a fun photo shoot a couple weekends ago, and they came out SOOO great! Unfortunately, as with most black clothing, it was really hard to show all the details of this make without zapping all the color out of the images, so you have to squint kind of hard to really see the details of the belt and drape of the fabric; but honestly, this is such a simple make that there isn’t too much you have to imagine on your own, and I hope you can get the feel of the dress despite the black fabric!
I also wish I had been wearing my newly made furry heels in these photos, because I was inspired to make them in this leather and texture after I started making this dress- I thought the two would go beautifully together, but alas, the soles were still waiting to be glued when we took these photos. No worries though- I have other outfits that I think these shoes are gonna look KILLER with, so they will have their chance to shine on the blog eventually!
And lastly, here are a couple of really fun shots Jess got that don’t quite show off the dress, but still evoke a pretty fantastic LBD mood…thanks again, Jess, for sharing your talents with me!
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