The editors are very pleased to welcome Christy Matheson Forrest to the blog. This post will focus on the Cashmerette Roseclair Dress and the Closet Core Elodie Dress patterns. Part Two will add information about the Deer and Doe Magnolia Faux Wrap Dress and the True Bias Roscoe Dress patterns. Enjoy!
If you like an airy, graceful summer dress, you might be considering the Elodie or the Roseclair. Both are full-wrap, woven dresses, promising no gaping, and released in two size blocks. Other social media stars you may be considering, with a similar look, are the True Bias Roscoe and the Deer & Doe Magnolia. I love wearing dresses, I love sewing dresses, and I love talking about sewing dresses, so here are my thoughts on all these patterns! This head-to-head is comparing the two most similar wrap dresses, and I added some notes about the other patterns as well. I also included some basic fit and sewing ideas, and lots of pictures showing the different dresses in similar fabrics and poses. I am describing my own experience, but I also have included ideas and observations from reading about other sewists’ experiences. I hope this review helps you decide which pattern(s) is right for you, and helps smooth your path into making your own wonderful summer dress!
Enjoying the spring sunshine in Elodie (left) and Roseclair
Pattern details:
Both these patterns come in two lines, and in both cases, I used their larger or “curvy” block. The Closet Core curvy block is designed for a D sewing cup, and the Cashmerette block has three cup sizes, going from sewing cup C to sewing cup E (which they name closer to bra cup sizes). In the Elodie, I made a size 16 graded to 18 in the hip/skirt. In the Roseclair, I made a size 12 G/H graded to 16 in the hip/skirt. I bought both these patterns as pdf’s and had them printed here .
Their size range is very similar, although the Elodie has more ease in final construction. The size charts state:
| Elodie | Roseclair | |
| High Bust | 56” | 57” |
| Full Bust | 60” | 62” |
| Waist | 53” | 52” |
| Hip | 63” | 62” |
For clarity, in this review I will put pictures or descriptions of the Elodie first and the Roseclair second, just because the Elodie was released first; then the Magnolia and the Roscoe if I am comparing them.
Back views of Elodie (left) and Roseclair
My details:
I am 5 foot 3 inches tall, and my measurements are:
| High bust | 37″ |
| Full bust | 42″ |
| Waist | 32″ |
| Hips | 46″ |
My sewing cup size is an E, but I need extra room in the bust because I am breastfeeding. My bra size is a 32K.
My body shape is an hourglass. My biggest sewing challenges are fitting through a relatively large bust and low hip, with relatively small shoulders and waist. I have strong sensory preferences about the way clothes fit, I strongly dislike clothes that are tight on me, and I need enough ease to breastfeed, pick up small children, babywear, and clean up suspicious substances from the floor.
I tried to make the dresses in similar fabrics for a direct comparison, and have (almost) everything in both a crisp midweight fabric and a slippery lightweight rayon. I have washed and worn all of these dresses multiple times. I wanted to be able to provide a review which really tells you all about how the clothes wear and what they feel like in different situations, not just hot off the final pressing.
Overall Winner:
I can’t keep this mystery through the whole review, so here is the overall winner….. the winner is me! Elodie & Roseclair are two wonderful patterns which are well designed, fit well, and are beautiful. I am delighted to have both options to make a wider variety of pretty and practical dresses. They have enough differences that I do not feel that they overlap too much. They feel different, and suit different occasions.
Bodice views in rayon: Elodie (left) and Roseclair
Similarities of Elodie & Roseclair:
- Excellent, well-drafted instructions, with accurate pattern pieces. Also detailed, accurate charts with body measurements (including high bust); finished garment measurements; and fabric requirements.
- Excellent directions. Both of these directions are my favorite kind: enough information to do each step correctly; clean line drawings that don’t take up too much space; and not filled with extra information or chatty asides.
- If you want more information, both companies have several blog posts about the dresses. Here are Elodie articles, and here are some for the Roseclair.
- Designed on a block that is specifically designed for curvy figures.
- Good coverage at the neckline without gaping or flashing too much cleavage. I will go into more detail in the specific patterns and fabrics, but both of these were comfortable and modest — even with moving the fabric back and forth to breastfeed throughout the day.
- Good coverage on the wrap skirt. Before I was drawn to the shape of the Elodie, I was not a wrap dress fan. I think the last time I wore a wrap dress or skirt, I was 12 years old and walking the family husky, who slipped his leash and trotted off to explore (as huskies do!), and while I was running frantically after him, my skirt wanted to stay behind. Really, really wanted to stay behind! It did not dispose me kindly to wrap-around garments! But these dresses both stay on well, and I don’t worry about the skirt flapping open while I walk, or even run. (Sorry, I wasn’t dedicated enough to this review to borrow a large dog and chase after him!)
Closet Core Elodie: Winning Characteristic!
The star feature of the Elodie is that it looks good and feels good, on sewists with a variety of body types, with very few modifications out of the package. Elodie is so easy to get a really nice fit, and that is such a nice feeling! I am basing this observation especially on many comments I have read from sewists making this dress, with all sorts of body proportions, not only my own experience.
The design features which contribute to this are the shoulders, box pleats for the bust, and waist ties. The shoulders are grown-on or dolman, which means that they just grow right on from the end of your personal shoulders, instead of looking saggy on narrow shoulders and tight on wide shoulders. I did do a slight forward-shoulder adjustment to keep the seam line straight on me, but they don’t need much fussing. Since the shoulder size is not precise, you could round up to the next size for the whole bodice instead of doing a FBA or grading between sizes in the bodice. I did not need to do a FBA even though my bust was outside their measurements.
Pleats on the front bodice, from the outside and inside
The bodice is shaped with release pleats and box darts, instead of darts or princess seams, on both the front and back. This gives some shaping to the bodice so it doesn’t look boxy, but it isn’t designed to be form-fitting or point to a certain point on the body, so the bodice flows over a variety of body shapes. The pleats are also easy to sew successfully!
Close-up of shoulder seams, neckline and bust shaping
The waist sash makes it easy to accentuate your waist if you want to, and also creates the visual interest of a waist (and dividing the body into the visually balanced ⅓: ⅔ proportions) even if the sewist doesn’t have much of a dip in their body to begin with. It also makes it very easy to fit through the waist. If the size chart says to grade up significantly for the waist, you probably would want to do that so that you have enough fabric coverage, but grading is an easy adjustment. Other than that, the way the waist ties together will do all the shaping for you, and you don’t need to adjust the pattern at all.
The Elodie has a graceful, classic dress shape, and its drafting details mean that many sewists can get a good fit without making complicated adjustments. That is enough to make this dress a star!
Longer-sleeved Elodie in a mid-weight cotton dobby, with a scarf for a chilly spring day, and short-sleeved Elodie in bamboo rayon.
Cashmerette Roseclair: Winning Characteristic!
The feature that appeals to me the most about the Roseclair is that it has a simple construction and yet is also appealingly versatile. The views in the packet range from “classic fit ‘n’ flare” to “charmingly cottage core,” but as soon as I am working with the pieces I see so much more that I could do with it! I think you could wear a different Roseclair every day without people noticing that it is the same dress. It would be easy to change the sleeves, turn it into a faux wrap or non-wrap skirt, change the skirt shape, or add a waistband and sash…. and all of that with a base layer that is simple and quick to sew.
Unlike the Elodie, the Roseclair has “normal” set-in sleeves, so you can totally transform the dress by setting in different sleeves. It comes with three variations in the packet; and the current sleeves seem to beg for turning into a cold-shoulder, cap sleeve, longer puffed sleeve, and have all sorts of boho charm added with switching the cuffs for ribbons or decorative edging; the simplest variation is just leaving off the cuffs for a flowing look. But if you wanted a totally different look, you could also swap in a cuffed shirt sleeve for more of a workplace look, a long sleeve for winter, a bishop or trumpet sleeve for drama. Oh, and wouldn’t it look so au courante to do a wide sleeve with rows of shirring, either at the top or the elbow? The bodice and skirt (view B) have simple, classic, lines, so the overall look would follow the look of the sleeves, and the tiered skirt in View A already begs for infinite sleeve experimentation.
There are tutorials for adapting many of those sleeve types online, and I have also had good luck switching sleeves from one Cashmerette pattern to another. Now wait — I am also 100% sure this is not officially sanctioned and there are important differences between sleeves! I trace the two sleeve patterns, taking the sleeve head of the original pattern and then merging into other details of the sleeve pattern; and then, of course, muslin it out! There are also a lot of small visual details that can be moved from one pattern to another without much fussing, like different shaped cuffs, plackets, keyhole & ties, etc.
Skirt variations are fairly straightforward. You could add ruffles, pockets, change length, switch to gored panels, etc etc etc. I think the Roseclair would work better for modifying into a faux wrap dress. The fitted nature of the bodice means that all you would need to do would be to baste the two bodice sides together before sewing in your skirt; and then of course you would add an opening. If you like the look of the finished dress but don’t like wrap dresses, this would be such an easy modification it would still be worth getting the pattern.
The essential element of the Roseclair is a classic, well fitted, V-neck bodice, which means that it is easy to get a very different look by making simple changes to the secondary parts of the dress…. all while being simpler to sew than a shirt dress or sheath dress. Versatility is a winning characteristic for me!
View B of the Roseclair with cap sleeves, skirt lengthened by 6 inches, in linen. View A of the Roseclair with longer sleeves, no sleeve cuffs, cotton twill ribbon used for the neckline and ties, in bamboo rayon.
Head to Head: who wins in these categories?
- The Bodice
If you like a bodice that skims your torso, fitting nicely and neatly around each curve, and sitting precisely on the tops of your shoulders, then your winner is definitely the Roseclair! Roseclair delivers precise and classic fitting, and you might find the Elodie looks saggy and the shoulders look droopy.
However, if you want a bodice that is going to fit comfortably at the first or second try, or you actually (honestly!) are not going to make a muslin, or the thought of fussing with yet another set of shoulder adjustments is bringing tears to your eyes, then you want to grab the Elodie. I had to make more muslin variations of the Roseclair than I have ever had to make with a Cashmerette pattern, and I’ve seen many other sewists getting stuck as well. The Elodie also gives a more consistent fit across different fabrics, whereas Cashmerette says upfront that the Roseclair behaves very differently in different fabrics.
Blousy Elodie and fitted Roseclair in similar crisp, lightweight fabrics
- The Neckline
Elodie has a neckline that is constructed with interfaced facings. Roseclair has a neckline that is constructed with binding, no interfacing, and then rolled under. If you hate one of those methods, your winner is right there! I found Elodie is less bulky to wear, and Roseclair faster to sew, but both are well constructed. The Elodie did sag slightly in slippier fabrics, which I will discuss later; but I hadn’t done any adjustments to fix it (whereas I did on the Roseclair), so I will credit that as a construction problem and not a pattern problem.
- The Arms
If you dislike dolman sleeves, the Roseclair is your winner. If you dislike fussing with sleeve adjustment, the Elodie is your winner.
Pretty simple, but the totally different sleeve construction is the top reason why I feel like these dresses complement each other instead of looking too much the same.
- The Waistband
This is another big difference between the patterns, and it really affects how they look and feel!
The Elodie is constructed with two long sashes that come out of the built-in waist band. There is a hole in the waistband that one sash threads through, and then you can tie them at the front or back. Once you tie it, the bodice fluffs up to the right amount, and the skirt hangs from the waistband, which is fully enclosed with both facing and interfacing.. The waistband/sash construction holds the wrap dress together cleanly, and I did not find it slippery in any fabric. If you like having a dress that is more stable in how it is secured to your body, you like the look of a sash, or you want waist definition, then the Elodie is your winner. The construction will also hold up better for heavy fabrics or lots of use.
Waist construction: you can see the waistband and sash of the Elodie, and how that forms the blousing of the bodice and holds up the line of the skirt. Then you can see the side ties for the Roseclair, that the front seam is slipping slightly out of place, and how it gives more space in the front of the body.
The Roseclair is held together with two small sets of ties, one pair coming off the neckline and one pair sewn to the side seam at the waist. One set ties on the inside of the dress, and the other on the outside, and placed out of the way of normal movement so they are not very noticeable. The waistline is the seam of the bodice sewn to the skirt. If you really dislike any sort of pressure on your waist, have a lot of sensory sensitivity in this area, prefer your dress to float away from your body in hot weather, or dislike the feeling of dealing with a knot, then the Roseclair is your winner.
As described above, if you want an easy fit out of the packet, the Elodie is for you. In order to adjust the waist to fit you just…. tie it. Many sewists find that the Roseclair waist needs quite a bit of personalized adjustment, and since there is no waistband it has a predilection to sag. However, the Elodie takes more fuss for maintenance; the long sash will just tangle up with everything in the washer and dryer, so I make sure to wash them in a delicates bag.
Given that the Roseclair bodice is fitted, I found it a little frustrating that the waist was more “float delicately in the general vicinity of the waistline,” it felt like the dress might slide off me (it doesn’t, but that’s my sensory impression), I worried that there was too much tension on the one seam, and I preferred the feeling of the constructed waistband of the Elodie. However, once I made some adjustments to reinforce the waist, I no longer notice those problems and I like them both equally.
- The Skirt
Both patterns come with a knee-length skirt option and an ankle-length option. The Roseclair has more visual difference between the two options, and the Elodie comes with a third midi option.
If you like swirly skirts, feminine flounce, cottage core, extra tiers, floofy fabric, color-blocking, ruffles, or mommy-and-me dresses, the Roseclair is your winner. View A is not just the typical “cut out a long rectangle and gather it,” they have planned out different shapes of rectangles to balance out the skirt all around, and help the gathering stay even at all points. They even include measurements so you can cut it with your ruler and rotary cutter if you prefer, although I really wish they had mentioned where to put the marking notches. It is an A+ drafting of a floofy tiered skirt, and if you like this look, you might want to get the pattern so you can start sticking this skirt onto everything you make.
Graceful hem on the Elodie midi, and floofy fun on the Roseclair tiers
If your very favorite is a midi-length skirt, the Elodie is your winner. For the Roseclair, I cut at the lengthen/shorten line and added 5 to 7 inches, getting a nice midi-length A-line skirt, but the front overlap was not quite right. (This also could be because of how the waistband sags.) However, the drafting for the midi skirt on the Elodie includes a nice, subtle swoop, so the back is slightly longer and the front has the perfect overlap.
Comparison of the front pattern pieces; Elodie is on top and you can see that Roseclair is wider. Then back pattern pieces; Roseclair is on top, and you can see the shaping of the Elodie piece.
Both skirts have plenty of wrap overlap. Closet Core includes a tutorial for how to increase overlap, should you so desire. The Roseclair seems to have slightly more than the Elodie in the A-line version, and the tiered version of the Roseclair had the most. I wore my tiered Roseclair for a whole weekend on the beach (after an accident involving my other outfit and curry!), and I did not have to fuss with keeping it closed, although the wind was so strong that the sand stung our ankles.
Sewing Notes for the Closet Core Elodie
- Fabric Actually Used:
I am a huge fan of jury-rigging patterns and usually use less fabric than the pattern calls for. I also like using non-directional prints, which helps! (I’m also making one of the smaller sizes in the group.) I can make the Elodie with slightly less than the pattern notes, but not significantly less… I’ve used 4 or 4.5 yards (of narrow fabric) for most of the midi dresses in this review, which officially calls for 5 yards.
- Time To Sew:
Once I was familiar with this pattern, and had the cutting done, it took me a little over 3 hours to sew the dress. That is a very approximate time because there are a lot of interruptions, so it was hard to remember when I stopped and restarted! Both the neckline facing and the waistband take longer than the Roseclair.
- Fabric Choices:
I have made this in a medium-weight, crisp, cotton dobby; a lightweight cotton lawn; and a lightweight rayon. In the rayon challis, the neckline sagged more than in the cotton versions. I eventually figured out that because the front is heavier than the back, the weight is pulling the fabric from the back over my shoulders, where it sags open a little in front. The immediate solution is to put a little snap or C-hook to hold the bodice closed, which many people do for Elodie to add some extra coverage. For a broader fix, I will need to make some adjustments for working with an extra-lightweight or slippery fabric. (I think I will just shorten slightly at the shoulder on both sides.)
- Pattern Adjustments:
For the dresses in this review, I did a very small (¼ to ½ inch) forward shoulder adjustment, and used a larger size in the skirt. I did not need any other adjustments, even though my bust size is larger than what the pattern is drafted for. Closet Core has instructions for a FBA, gaping neckline, and more.
- What I Sewed Differently:
The directions for the neckline facing call for the facing to be understitched, then tacked into place at the shoulders. I feel like with such a long facing, the shoulder tacks don’t keep it in place as cleanly as I would like. I tried different ways of finishing it, and I settled on understitching and ironing as directed, then adding a line of topstitching at ¼” all along the neckline (sewn from the middle to the edge); and skipping tacking it into place at the shoulders. I also worried the sash was going to lose its shape and be impossible to iron once it went through the wash, so I topstitched right at the edge all the way around the sash.
- My #1 Sewing Hint for the Elodie:
Mark all your pattern pieces, especially the skirt, and especially mark which side you sew together when! When I am looking at the pattern pieces, they look distinct and different, but when it comes time to sew them together they look remarkably similar — but all the nice little drafting details mean that it really doesn’t work to sew them in the wrong order!
Sewing Notes for the Cashmerette Roseclair:
- Fabric Actually Used:
I needed everything the pattern calls for. The knee-length skirt asks for 3 ⅜ yards (wide fabric), and I used 3 ½ and added a few inches of length to the skirt. View A is hard to cheat on, because it’s mostly rectangles. If you do need to save fabric, I suggest making the bias binding from a coordinating fabric, because it is turned under anyways.
- Time to Sew:
Once I had the pieces cut and knew the pattern, I could sew up View B in approximately two hours. Whee, that means plenty of time to make more of them! (View A took about twice as long.)
- Fabric Choices:
Cashmerette said this responds really differently to different fabrics, and I agree. The waist seems to drag down unattractively in fabrics with some give to them, like double gauze or loose weaves. I found with a slippery rayon challis, the waist ties pulled slightly loose no matter what I did (next time I made the waist ties from a decorative twill ribbon instead of fabric), and the wrap part also did not “stick to” itself well and I was adjusting it more than I like. A heavier fabric would probably need some reinforcement on the waist. I suggest starting with a medium/lightweight cotton or linen with moderate texture, and feeling how the dress elements work together, before branching into fabrics that stretch and drape significantly differently, so you can figure out which elements to adjust.
- Making a Peplum:
It’s nice to make a peplum, either to test fit or just for a top. I used 1 ⅞ yards (wide fabric) to make a peplum, and 2 yds seems to cover it for most people. You can just use the top layer of the View A skirt for no pattern modification whatsoever (which I did); or I like the look of adding 3″ length to that piece, so it skims over the belly a little more.
Sewing-room photos of the linen/rayon peplum. These are before I modified the waistline. It makes a nice shirt, but next time I will add 3″ to the peplum skirt.
- Pattern Adjustments:
I needed to take a significant amount off the neckline, which Cashmerette describes among other common alterations.
Which then meant I needed to change the darts, which created more dart problems, which I worked through like this.
Then I needed to adjust the waist so it fit straight across, which I did just by measuring the peplum, in several places, and cutting off a curve from the bottom of the pattern piece. I used a larger size in the skirt. I did not need a forward shoulder/rounded back adjustment, which I usually do with Cashmerette wovens, so heads up that the angle changed if the old shoulder worked for you!
- What I Sewed Differently:
I added approximately 6″ of length to the knee-length skirt for a midi skirt. After my first rayon ties were slippery, I switched to using cotton twill ribbon for the ties in my next version, and decided to leave them exposed for the neckline. I also added reinforcement to the waistline.
The inside of my waistline, adjusted version for slippery fabric. I sewed twill tape into the waist seam, serged the open seam at the edge of the twill tape, then faux flat felled the seam down. The waist stays in place much better, both vertically and horizontally. You can also see the cotton twill ribbons I used for ties. Second picture is the outside of the bodice with twill ribbon, and you can see the two lines of stitching at the waist for the flat felled seam. It still is not a snug waist like the Elodie.
- My #1 Sewing Hint for the Roseclair:
There are approximately twelve miles of hand-made bias tape in this pattern. The pattern directions call for ironing the narrow pieces the long way three ways and folding over, but a simple bias tape maker will make this go a lot faster and more smoothly! Or, you can use ribbon, pre-made bias tape, or bias tape made out of a more stable fabric.
- My #2 Sewing Hint for the Roseclair, View A:
Personally, I find the dental floss method of gathering to be smoother and less fussy for large pieces of fabric.
Comparison of crisp fabrics: Elodie in cotton lawn, Roseclair in linen
Conclusion:
I have made a lot of summer dresses, and I wear them almost every day. Elodie and Roseclair are flowy, summery, and fashionable, and are popular lately in the sewing community. They are both excellent patterns with well-designed details and well drafted for curvy figures, but they have enough differences to appeal to different people, or both play a role in a varied me-made closet.
In Part Two, I’ll add comparisons of two more flowy, summery wrap-style dresses—the Deer and Doe Magnolia and True Bias Roscoe. Both have a striking, graceful silhouette. All four of these patterns are relatively quick to sew, and all of them can be dressed up or down with different fabrics. I hope that my summary of the similarities and differences helped make it clear what you want to add to your me-made rotation!
