Be Captivating
This look
Fabric: Double Brushed Poly
Plum Magnolias from Sly Fox Fabrics, Claire Flowers Mint from Elevated Fashion Fabrics
Bodice: Be Captivating
Skirt: Breezy
Modesty cami: Hey Babie
Since I’ve started sewing I notice everyone’s clothes in a totally different way. If any of my coworkers ever went missing and I had to describe them to the police it would probably go something like this –
Police: Could you describe Susan? What does she look like and what was she wearing today?
Me: She was wearing a charcoal french terry dolman sweater, relaxed fit, tunic length with wrist cuffs and a banded bottom, black skinny leg leggings with tall boots. The neckband on her sweater was put on backwards so the seam allowance is on the front.
Police: uhm, is she white? black? Asian? How tall?
Me: oh, I don’t know. I guess she has like brownish hair.
So true! This one coworker wears a store bought sweater with the seam allowance on the front and I am always staring at it, like, do you know your sweater is made wrong?! They should unpick and do it over. But it also looks really cool like that.
My Mission (Not Impossible)
Not only do I notice everyone else’s clothes, I really notice my own. I needed a change from the normal and I notice I don’t wear crossover/wrap type bodices very often. That changes now!
The Be Captivating from Ellie and Mac , is one in a series of dresses with this kind of neckline that I’m exploring and blogging about right now. Links to my other posts below!
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| Knot Your Average |
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| Willow by Love Notions |
Be Captivating by Ellie and Mac
The Be Captivating is a cross-over top that goes together super quick because it’s lined, so there’s no band to put on. It has a pencil-shaped skirt bottom. This is the dress with no mods (except extra top stitching on the cross over because I love playing with my coverstitch) I used the “modest” cut line on the bodice.
Excuse the bad photo, not my best work! This was before I upgraded to my new camera!
That’s better!
I love this dress for evening wear. The double brushed poly is so pretty!! It’s from Elevated Fashion Fabrics.
Can’t stop won’t stop [mashing]
One thing I love about Ellie and Mac is that their robust catalog of patterns means it’s a masher’s paradise. I think I have almost every Ellie and Mac pattern. Not only is the whole site on sale several times a year (right now 40% off!), they do $1 patterns rotating on Wednesdays.
My love for the breezy skirt is well documented on this blog and I knew since it’s also an Ellie and Mac that it should fit perfectly with the Be Captivating bodice. Sure enough. How great is that! This might be one of my favorite makes ever!
This pretty purple double brushed poly is called “Plum Magnolias” and it’s from Sly Fox Fabrics. It’s even prettier in person. I was so glad to have some leftover because I was able to whip up a quick All-Seasons Dolman (blog) too!
I used the lower neckline for this one because I wanted to wear it with a cami. I used the cami from the Hey Babie. I decided not to attach it into the armcye like I did with my cowl neck mash so that I could wear it under multiple dresses. Therefore, I needed arm bands. I could’ve measured and math’d but I had the Virginia pattern handy (see my blog if you don’t already know and love that pattern!) so I just used those arm band measurements and it worked fine. The math wouldn’t be that bad though, just measure around the arm hole and calculate 90%.
The white double brushed poly for the cami came from a Sincerely Rylee scrap pack. I got a whole yard of it, with no flaws in a $5 scrap pack that also had two yards of the most amazing, flawless pineapple double brushed poly!
You can sort of see the lining of my Be Captivating here since I have it pulled down to show the cami. I used the scraps from my Knitpop double brushed poly I used to make my Willow dress. I’m thrifty and try to be zero waste like that!
I’m a big fan of the Hey Babie pattern itself and also how it works, with the pull up and pull down method. The cami underneath gives me that.
Maternity possible: Yes! Pattern as-is will be fine for awhile, especially in stretchy fabric and even longer by adding the breezy skirt. Once you need a full blown mod, I would raise the waist line by shortening the bodice a tad. Then you could lengthen and ruche the pencil skirt or swap out for your favorite maternity friendly skirt. The easiest would be a gathered straight rectangle using the full width of fabric to give you the most room. Something like the gathered option on the Madrid Maxi. The Willow dress has a maternity specific skirt you might try too.
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| Madrid with gathered skirt |
Nursing possible: Yes! The cross-over is perfect for easy pull-down. The modest neckline (black with roses version) works just fine. You can also do the lower neckline (purple version) for more access. I paired with the cami from the Halla Hey Babie so I would have a modesty panel and lift up access. I’m a big fan of the Hey Babie‘s method.
Here’s the: link to my blog post with all my Hey Babie makes.
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| Hey Babie Nursing Access Blog Post |
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| My collection of nursing friendly patterns |
I’ve been making a lot of Ellie and Mac patterns lately. The 2XL fits me well, I only adjust a tiny bit for height. The overlapping pages give me confidence that I assembled them correctly and leaves me room to do that tiny height adjustment! They’re almost always having a sale. Patterns release at a discount, on top of the sale price! So they’re usually $3.85 on the day I blog them. On Wednesdays, the patterns rotate through being on sale for $1 (Wacky Wednesday).
Here are some of my other blog posts about Ellie and Mac Patterns.
https://www.kittymakesit.com/search/label/EAM
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| Be Smart Jumper |
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| Day to Night top/dress |
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| Be Captivating |
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| Favorite Sweater |
Link disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Clicking the link doesn’t change the product or price you’re shown, but I might get a small percentage towards materials for my next project. If you found this post helpful and are planning to purchase the pattern anyway, I’d really love for you to use my link.
Pattern link: https://www.ellieandmac.com/collections/juniors-womens-patterns/products/womens-be-captivating-dress-top-pattern?aff=378
