I recently sewed another dress from the Five & Ten Designs Volume 1 pattern book and chose “Look 5,” a charming color-block dress by Delia Randall. I had a set of cool-toned prints from Modern Yardage that felt modern and fresh, and they paired perfectly with this silhouette. The clean lines and side color-blocking of Look 5 give the dress a distinctive shape that feels both contemporary and playful.
About the pattern: the Five & Ten Designs book uses a single bodice block and provides instructions and extra pieces to transform that block into ten unique looks. Look 5 shows how to create rounded color-block panels at the sides of the dress, which gives an especially cute and unusual silhouette. The instructions were clear and straightforward, and overall I’m very pleased with how the dress turned out.
That said, I ran into a hiccup during cutting. I unintentionally cut the front bodice pieces from the back pattern and the back from the front, finishing the bodice before noticing the error. With no extra fabric to recut, I improvised a fix for the front neckline. I marked one inch to each side and one inch down from the center front, drew a triangular notch, stitched along that triangle, and trimmed the excess with pinking shears. The alteration lowered the neckline enough to be comfortable, and it looks natural when worn. If you’re making this pattern, be aware the correct design has a lower, rounded front neckline and a higher back neckline.
I also skipped the in-seam pockets called for in the pattern. After realizing my cutting mistake I was ready to move on and opted not to add them, even though they would have been a practical and attractive detail. Does anyone else have those sewing days where one small mistake leads to another? It felt like one of those projects, but the finished dress still turned out well.
Now about the fabric: Modern Yardage provided the prints for this dress. I first learned about them at a spring conference, and I appreciate what they offer. Modern Yardage prints fabrics on demand, which means prints remain available and you don’t have to worry about missing out on a design that goes out of stock. Their fabrics are high-quality, pre-shrunk 100% cotton poplin, slightly heavier and crisper than standard quilting cotton. The fabric pressed beautifully and because it’s pre-shrunk I didn’t need to pre-wash, which saved time.
The color saturation was striking in person — more vibrant than the online images suggested. I selected shades from the “Entangled by Heather Dutton” collection: cobblestone, meadow, emerald, and persimmon. In the end I used cobblestone and meadow together; the other colors didn’t read as well in person for this specific project. If you plan to coordinate multiple prints, ordering a small fabric swatch or a fat quarter is a smart move to confirm colors and scale before placing a larger order.
One unique feature of Modern Yardage is how they print: they produce a standard 44″ design panel but print on 58″ wide fabric. The extra width can include designer information, pattern pieces, craft ideas, or promotional material. For this dress I chose different scale options for the prints—notice how the green side panels have a smaller-scale pattern than the gray front and back. Choosing scale can enhance a color-block design and offers useful options for pattern mixing.
Overall, the combination of the Five & Ten Designs Look 5 and Modern Yardage prints made a modern, wearable dress with great color and crisp fabric quality. If you try this pattern, plan your cutting carefully, consider ordering fabric swatches to verify colors, and enjoy experimenting with scale when color-blocking. Have a great start to your week and happy sewing!