Gertie Sews Jiffy Dresses Popover and Chemise Dress Pattern Review

I’m a real sucker for sewing books. I love the colorful glossy photos, the cohesive vision and the helpful tips and tricks. What I don’t love is tracing the, usually disorganized and overlapping, pattern pieces from the book inserts. In fact, despite owning half a dozen beautiful volumes, Gertie Sews Jiffy Dresses is the first one where I actually made any of the dresses!

So far, I’ve made the incredibly popular Popover Dress and Chemise Dress, both of which were fast and easy to make.

The Pattern

Pattern Description

The Popover Dress is Gertie’s homage to Clare McCardell’s casual “throw on and go” dresses from the 1950s. It’s taken on a life of its own on Instagram and is a very popular project for first-time dressmakers.

The Chemise Dress is modeled on the shift-like dresses from the 1950s. This version has a sweetheart neckline and tapers at the knee. It also has a slit in the back so you can walk.

Sizing

Patterns in the Gertie Sews Jiffy Dresses book run from a size 2 to a 16, but don’t be deceived by the seemingly limited range. The patterns have varying amounts of ease, and can fit a fairly wide range of sizes, depending on how close fitting you prefer your clothes. The Popover Dress has the most ease and has finished bust measurements from 40½” to 54½”. The Chemise Dress, which is closer fitting, has finished bust measurements from 35” to 49”.

Pattern Adjustments

For my Popover Dress, I sewed a size 4 without any adjustments. I went back and forth about the length of the skirt, but ended up leaving it at mid-calf length.

Since the Chemise Dress is closer fitting, I did make some tweaks to ensure a better fit.  I traced a size 4 for the bust and waist and graded to a size 6 at the hips. I also shortened the bodice by 1” and shortened the skirt by 3”. To preserve the taper of the skirt and walkability of the slit, I shortened the pattern piece at mid-thigh before cutting my fabric, rather than taking up the hem of the finished dress.

Design Modifications

I didn’t make any real modifications to either dress, but I didn’t follow the pattern markings for shirring the Popover Dress. After sewing the dress together, I tried it on, marked where I wanted the shirring to go, and then got down to business. Based on the distance from my natural waist to my under bust, I made my shirring 4 inches high.

Construction Tips and Tricks

Shirring the Waist of the Popover Dress

The Popover Dress was my first attempt at shirring a summer dress, and it was as easy as could be! There are loads of tutorials online and the instructions in the book are great, so I won’t repeat them here, but you’ll be golden as long as you follow the three main rules of shirring:

1. Wind the elastic thread around the bobbin by hand. As you wind, pull the thread a little so there’s some tension, but not too tight.
2. Lengthen the stitch length a bit. I sewed my shirring with a 3.5 mm stitch length.
3. Steam over the shirring to shrink it up and make it stretchier, but don’t put the iron directly on it or else you might melt the elastic. 

Pattern Matching With Gingham

I loved the sample of the Popover Dress that Gertie sewed up in light pink gingham gauze – how light and summery! I also decided to make a gingham Popover and knew that I wanted to cut it on the bias to get those perfectly matched diamonds down the front seam. Be warned – if you decide to cut your Popover on the bias, it will guzzle a tremendous amount of fabric. My fabric was 50” wide and I ended up using just under 3 yards to get the pattern matching just right.

The Fabric and Haberdashery

The Fabrics

I love gingham but it’s hard to buy online! I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time envisioning the difference between a ¼” check and a ½” check from website photos, and it’s a crapshoot whether the fabric is going to be opaque or just a little too sheer. Enter the Cotton + Steel Checkers collection from a few years back. It was actually a recommendation from Gertie herself, and it’s the most perfect weight and scale for dresses. Since it’s a few seasons old, it’s not as easy to find as it once was, but there’s still some out there on Etsy and Fabric.com. Highly recommended!

I used cotton lawn for both of my Chemise Dresses, and I would say that, in most instances, you probably want to use something with more drape for this silhouette. I made my Chemise Dresses for a very specific, and very goofy, purpose – I love wearing shift dresses in the summer, but was looking for a similar style that would give me better tan lines. Enter the cotton lawn Chemise Dresses – which are light and airy and expose more skin than your average shift. So what if I look like a 50s bombshell while I’m sweating it out doing yard work?

Haberdashery

If you decide to add the shirring to the Popover Dress, be warned that a spool of elastic thread doesn’t go very far. I used exactly one spool to do the waist on my dress – the whole spool – so be prepared with extra on hand!

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Keywords: Pattern Review, Popover Dress Pattern Review, Chemise Dress Pattern Review, Gertie Sews Jiffy Dresses, Gertie Sews Jiffy Dresses Pattern Review