The Solis Dress by Sofilantjes

So we’ve all had some sort of flu/cold/plague (HAH) thing this week, and I’d planned to get this post up before now.  I love this dress! Sofilantjes (you’ve seen my Liv Skirt, Otium Top, Iridis Dresses, and Brueram Dresses) has come out with this new pattern – the Solis Dress (affiliate link). There are three different versions of the dress – a circle skirt, a pleated skirt, and a pleated tunic-length skirt. Marie-claude Bélanger wrote a post on how to make a peplum top on her blog, MCB Creations. 

I received the pattern in exchange for honest feedback during the pattern testing process. My little gal is thin and tall, so I made the size 12 months width while blending the pattern to the size 2y length. The best part of this pattern is the little back detail you can see to the left. I decided to use a stretch lace for the T-bar accent, both to make it stand out, and to add a little something extra. 

The dress is knit, and fully lined. I used a cotton jersey to line vintage knit fabric. I found this fabric while out and about, saw it, and thought, “This is the perfect fabric for making the Sofilantjes dress!” 

It sews up pretty quickly. You do need to be comfortable sewing with knits, and it helps if you have hemmed a curve before. You can either finish with a rolled hem, a blind hem, or do what I did and use bias tape for the hem. It made the dress kind of flare out in a cute way. It took me a few hours to make the dress, including with a few interruptions from two very very cute little ones. 

It would be a great pattern to use with knit panels. It’s also nice for fabrics you want to showcase. There were some really great versions of this dress that came out during testing.  I’ve got to think of another fabric I want to use (which will probably happen when I unpack my fabric). 

After I made the dress and put it on my gal for pictures, she needed to wear it for nearly 3 days straight. I’m taking that as a sign of success. You can purchase the pattern for the dress at Sofilantjes (affiliate link) for $8.95. 

Be on the lookout at Ronda B. Handmade, as I will be offering the ability to order a custom version of this dress to fit your little gal soon!

In the meantime, here are more photos.