George and Ginger solar sundress - pattern review

It is very rare that I buy a pattern during it's release but George and Ginger got me to do it twice this year! And I even made them both!?! That almost never happens but the Solar Sundress pattern was just exactly what I was looking for and magically appeared.

The pattern has now been out for a little while but I have been slow to blog about it because it was a busy summer! On the plus side, the delay means I've now made it twice.

Version 2 - pockets!

Things I love about the Solar Sundress:

• Pockets!
• Under-dress anti-chafe shorts - I always wear shortties under my dresses, so these are built in!
• Built-in bra options
• Lots of fun options and variations - so many great ideas from the testing team!

I have a super active and young dog-beast. Which leads to me constantly walking and sometimes running her around my neighborhood and I had been thinking that I wanted a skort of some kind. I want to look presentable for work and such but also for it to be practical for walking. I have a long held soft spot for athletic skorts. Of course, I also needed pockets to hold my phone. I had been thinking about hacking the Heatwave Hotpants to have a skirt over lay but it wasn't quite the shape I had in mind and then boom! Solar Sundress was released.

Version 1 back

Version 2

Since I was planning to possibly wear these for running, I opted not to use the built in bra options and I wear a sports bra under it to run. If I'm wearing them for casual wear, I do a strapless bra. Thus my review won't have an info on the bra process, at least for now. I can say though, that the other G&G bras I've made have turned out great (SIU bra, LBB).

Both versions were made out of athletic fabric. The blue/white is a nylon spandex from LA Finch Fabrics was my first version and the grey is from WTFabrics and was my second version.

Fit & Alterations

I made a size 14 top, graded to a 16 waist/hip. I also graded my shorts out another .25" at the side seams on the front and back pieces because based on my thigh measurement and the size of the pattern pieces, it seemed like they might be a little tight otherwise. If you have chunky thighs like me, you might want to consider this.

I also added two inches of length to the shorts and the dress. I am kind of leggy and G&G designs tend to be on the short side for my preferences 😊

Tip: If you add length, don't forget to do it also for the pocket backing and crotch pieces! I had to recut mine because they were all too short! Oops!

The armhole was way too high on my original version 1 (note that it's up in the armpit on my dress form in this pic before the fix) and the top was over all too tight. To fix this, I cut new straps .5" longer. To be honest, I guessed how much longer to make the strap and it more or less worked out. If there is a better way to know how much longer to make them someone please tell me in the comments!

This helped the fit! But it's a little on the low cut boob-a-licious side 😆

For version 2, before I cut, I lowered the armhole .5" and did just .25" extra strap length. Less low cut but still gives me the room I need around my arm.

After wearing version 1 a little bit, I also decided the waist/crotch length was a smidgeon short. It was a little more up in my business than I wanted, not quite enough ease. On pants, I have often added as much as 2 inches to accommodate my bum. Since this is a knit I wasn't quite sure how much to add but I settled on half an inch as I just needed a little more wiggle room. Again, make sure to add to all the pieces including the sides/pocket backing.

I added it below the waist and above the crotch curve. Adding it below would just make the legs longer and I needed the body to be longer. I debated on if I should also add length to the dress but since it was only .5" I decided not to and if the dress was shorter than the shorts, I could always have hemmed my shorts shorter. It worked out fine because it was such a small amount of added length.

Earphone hack

While I walk my dog beast, I like to listen to podcasts (NPR 💓) and my ears are shaped wrong for buds, so I put a grommet in the dress so I can feed my headphone wire through to the pocket.

I used this grommet installation kit and I put the finished dress on and marked with chalk where I wanted my grommet. I also reinforced the back of the grommet with a second later of fabric, to make it more sturdy. If wireless buds refuse to stay in your ears, like they do mine, this is fabulous!