We all love nice sewing details, right? A beautiful bias binding finish or, in the case of the Reynolds Dress, a mitered corner split hem. It’s gorgeous! It’s timeless! It makes you feel like a sewing wizard! But what if you aren’t in the mood for nice details. What if you just want to make the dress TONIGHT. Get ‘er done. Power through. Well, I’ve got the hack for you!
Get the Reynolds Top and Dress
I have been dreaming of this stripey blue linen Reynolds Dress since I got this fabric from Blackbird a few months ago. I knew it would be a perfect pairing! I wanted the dress but I am swamped with wedding sewing and I just wanted to make it quick and easy. So I thought - why not just eliminate the nice hem detail in favour of a simple side slit?
How to do this hack
When you go to cut your fabric, cut from under the dart out to the edge of the side slit detail on an angle. Continue that angle down to the hem, making the dress more A-line in shape. Cut across the hem on a curve. Do the same for the back of the dress.
I especially love how this A-line shape looks in a vertical stripe fabric because it gets those cool points on the sides. It also adds a bit more volume to the dress and I am loving that, too!
Sew the Reynolds Dress as instructed for the darts, back seam, straps, and facings. I lowered the neckline on this dress using this pattern hack tutorial. I also skipped the pockets because I wanted the linen to hang nice and flat at the sides and to speed things up even more!
When you go to sew the dress side seams, finish the edges of the fabric individually before sewing the seam. Decide how high you want your slits to be and stop sewing the side seam there. Press the seam open and topstitch the side openings. I also added a bartack at the top of my slits.
I let my dress hang overnight before hemming to make sure it was hanging nicely. Then I just serged the edge and turned the hem under 3/4” (2 cm) and topstitched it. Easy-peasy!
I am obsessed with how this dress turned out. Elegant only begins to describe how it feels to wear this lovely linen in this silhouette. It really is a winner! I’m sure I will sew the gorgeous mitered hem version again in the future, but it’s always fun to cut some corners and whip something up in an evening.
