I cut this lovely dress out over a year ago, and I had finally started sewing it in August, but I had to put it on hold because I was missing a couple pieces and then I was chosen to participate in the Fabricista Fashion Challenge 4. This is as far as I got before I put it on the back burner.
The pattern is (OOP) Butterick 5243 and I picked view A with the lovely flutter sleeves.
The fabric is a Mustard/Brown/Teal/Multi Abstract Floral Jersey Knit that I bought from Fabric Mart in May of 2015. The back of the fabric is soft and flannel like and I just love the way it feels, as well as how it looks.
We went to the Fremont Troll to take these photos because I thought it would be fun to start adding a little bit more of the Seattle experience to my blog. Plus, we were headed to Fremont to go to our favorite conveyor belt sushi place for lunch anyway, so it was only a couple blocks out of our way. Well, I forgot how popular the Troll is, so we took most of our photos in the area next to the troll since it was people free and there was a lovely green background. We got some with the Troll in the background too, but it was near impossible to not have other people in the photos, so not many of those came out very well. Oh well, interesting idea, but it didn’t pan out like I’d hoped.
The photo above led to my favorite photo. My daughter was my photographer and I was playing up the pinup girl feeling I have wearing this dress by lifting my skirt to show a little more leg and my daughter said “Oh, those gams!” and that made me laugh, which she captured so well.
I didn’t make any alterations to the pattern, but I made one small change to the construction process. When I went to add the waistband to the bodice, the front cross over was still all open. So, instead of properly matching the notches to make the crossover, I wanted to make sure the bodice wasn’t dangerously low and I could wear it without worry. So, I tried it on and got the crossover the way I wanted it and basted that together. Then, as I was attaching the waistband, I just gathered it at the underbust to make it fit. So, I think I don’t have quite as much gathered as the example photos because my front pieces overlap more than they are supposed to, but it fits perfect right now and shows just the right amount of cleavage.
I also hand sewed the neckline facing to the seam allowance of the yoke. I used to hate hand sewing, but I totally didn’t mind doing it the last couple times and I think it made the neckline turn out much nicer than if I’d tried to sew it down by machine.
Overall, I really am very pleased with how this dress turned out. I do wish I’d gone with the long sleeve version, simply because both times I wore it, I was chilly and ended up wearing a jacket over it, so a lot of the nice details were hidden.
My daughter liked this photo because she said I was making the same face as the Troll. It was not intentional on my part at all, but I can’t help but agree with her!
For the last 10 months I have been going to a bariatric clinic and lost 40 lbs with the intention of having weight loss surgery to help get the rest off. I hit a small speed bump due to some rules of my insurance policy and I had to change clinics, which was a huge disappointment to me, but I did end up having a sleeve gastrectomy performed on Nov. 2.
Leading up to the surgery, I knew I wanted to make something to wear home from the hospital. I have been wanting to try the Olivia Jersey Wrap Dress from Named Clothing since I acquired it as part of the Monthly Stitch‘s Chill Out IPM pattern bundle. And I knew I was going to be sore, so I figured a wrap dress would be easy to put on, would be comfortable and still look stylish.
Looking at the measurements, my waist and hips fall into the size 20, but the bust measurement is 3 1/4″ smaller than my bust size. However, after cutting out the size 20 pieces and comparing the bodice to some of my other knit dresses that I know fit, I decided to not do an FBA. Well, lo and behold, the dress fits perfect exactly the way it’s drafted.
Well, did I say perfect? It could actually use a sway back adjustment. But that’s about the only change I would consider doing.
It covers quite nicely. I was assuming since I didn’t do an FBA that I would be showing off a ton of cleavage, but nope. The neckline doesn’t gape at all and there is a large enough overlap that there is no chance of flashing. I definitely will be making more of these dresses, but I might not make the next one in this size.
The outside photos were taken today and the indoor photos were taken after I got it to a wearable state, the night before my surgery. I hadn’t sewn the facing down yet, so that’s a little sloppy looking, but I did that today. I wore my new dress home from the hospital yesterday and I got several compliments from the nurses at the hospital. I was going to just say thanks and let it go, but my husband made a point of telling them that I made it. Lol.
Oh, and the surgery went well and I’m feeling pretty good, although it hurts a lot to cough or get up from sitting or laying down, but a lot less after I’ve taken my lovely pain medication. I took two weeks off work to recover and I have a few things I cut out some time ago that I plan on getting sewn up so I can wear them a bit before they are too large.
I made a dress!! Is anyone really surprised? But this isn’t just any dress, it’s a gorgeous carefully pieced work of art (if I do say so myself.) It is absolutely my favorite thing I’ve ever made so far.
When the fabric arrived, I was very pleased with the quality and the colors are just so pretty and perfect for fall. But the more I contemplated and sketched ideas, I kept finding my sketches pulling in the colors, but since I was usually away from the fabric when I was sketching, I just kept forgetting that the scale of the pattern was very large, as you can see in this photo of it draped over my dress form.
Although I liked what I sketched (badly,) they didn’t accurately reflect what the garment would look like in the actual fabric. I just couldn’t wrap my head around how to use it in a way that I’d be able to either pattern match across seams or make it very apparent that I didn’t intend to pattern match (by rotating the fabric, for example.) I also didn’t like the idea of the mustard or the hot pink colors being close to my face. I don’t find those colors very flattering on me, so I was hoping to be able to place them far from where they can clash with my skin tone.
So, I sat and looked at the fabric laying out on my cutting table, sketchbook in hand and I remembered a technique I had seen not too long ago in a sewing magazine that I had been wanting to try. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which magazine and even leafed through a few to see if I could find the article I was thinking about, with no luck. But the technique was to take a fabric with a large pattern repeat and cut out a particular portion of the repeat several times and sew them back together to make a new design.
So, I decided to use my TNT Kitschy Coo Lady Skater pattern and divide each bodice and skirt piece vertically into 2 pieces, adding seam allowances between them, thus making 4 panels across the width of the dress. I identified where on the fabric I would lay out each piece and sketched out the design, trying to keep the scale as accurate as possible, to see how I’d like it. I loved it, so I settled on that as a plan, even before I finished coloring it in. My colored pencils just don’t do the colors in this fabric justice!
As shown in the photo above of my previously altered Lady Skater front bodice piece, I drew a vertical line from the bottom, halfway between the side seam stitching line and center front fold line (since seam allowances hadn’t been added yet) up to where I thought it would look aesthetically pleasing and did the same for the bodice back. For the skirt I did the same, but I marked exactly halfway between the stitching lines at both the top and the bottom of the pattern. I then copied each of the pattern halves onto tissue paper and added seam allowances at the fold lines and to both halves where the original patterns were split in the middle.
I started with the bodice and cut out one of the center front panels first. Then used it as a guide to determine where to lay the side bodice piece that was going to be next to it, matching the seam line on one side. Since the top of the bodice pieces were very different shapes, I focused on making the fabric pattern at the waist seam consistent to get the effect I was after.
My original sketch planned to use another sweater knit I have in my stash that is solid black for the sleeves, but after I pulled it out and looked at it, it didn’t have the same sheen as the provided fabric and it just looked dull and lifeless next to this gorgeous knit. I considered leaving the dress sleeveless, but ultimately I want to have a dress that I will actually wear, so I decided to use the leftover fabric, which I barely had two pieces just big enough to cut the pattern’s cap sleeves. I just positioned the sleeve piece such that the front of both sleeves had as much of the black as possible, to try to keep as close to my original vision as possible.
I also had planned on using that other sweater knit for the neck band, but that was out now. I didn’t want to just turn and stitch the neckline, so I made the decision to fully line the dress with a black cotton thermal knit with cameos printed on it that I picked a long time ago for very cheap and have thought I might never use. It had almost the exact stretch amount and was just a tad lighter than the sweater knit, so it seemed the perfect pairing. I used the unmodified pattern for the lining pieces and attached them to the shell at the neck, armscyes and the waist, letting the skirt lining basically hang free and just using french tacks to keep it in place.
My tips for working with sweater knits.
First of all, there are many different types of sweater knits. This one was what I’d consider a pretty stable sweater knit. The weave is tight and the fabric is opaque, but I’ve worked with very loose weave sweater knits before. I think Seamwork’s guide to sewing with sweater knits is a good starting point. In addition to the tips Seamwork provide, these are the things I have found helpful when I work with sweater knits.
1.Keep a lint brush handy! Or what I refer to as a “rolly sticky.” When you cut into these fabrics, a million little loops get opened up, so there is lint EVERYWHERE. Not just on the cutting table, but they’ll be all over your machine and workspace and the garment and my dress form was covered in tiny pieces of sweater knit.
2.When cutting, mark your notches with pins or thread or do like I was taught growing up and cut them outward, not inward to avoid losing them in the weave of the sweater knit.
3.BASTE, BASTE, BASTE! This is always a good idea anyway, but even with TNT patterns, it’s just smart to baste your seams first with sweater knits. Because sweater knits tend to be lofty, the stitches have this great way of just sinking in and disappearing, which is fantastic, but it also makes it so that the stitches are nearly impossible to see to rip out. Luckily I didn’t have any mistakes this time around and I only know how hard the stitches are to rip out because after the dress was assembled, I thought maybe I would add a pocket. After about half an hour and only having about an inch ripped out, I decided it was way too much work and just resewed that bit shut again. But I definitely basted almost all of my seams first, especially that waist seam, since I wanted the vertical seams to match up perfectly. Below is a photo of how the seams just disappear. That is actually a seam right down the middle of the photo.
I tend to be a fairly lazy sewist most of the time since I’m just making clothes for myself, but seeing how great this dress turned out actually made me take the extra time to hand sew an invisible hem. I overlocked the raw edge, pressed it up 5/8” and catch stitched it. The fabric is nice and lofty, so I was able to catch a few threads of the body without anything even showing on the right side.
Overall, this fabric was a dream to work with. It pressed really well, the seams absolutely disappear into it and it’s just gorgeous. I got to use a technique I’ve been wanting to use for a while and it made an amazing dress that I’m incredibly proud of and have been showing off to everyone who’ll pay attention to me.
All of the projects are up on the Fabric Mart blog and I definitely have some stiff competition. So go check out all the entries and vote for the project you liked the best.
I started making my first By Hand London Zeena that I got as part of The Monthly StitchChill Out Bundle with the intention of entering the Indie Pattern Month bundle contest. Unfortunately, my free time seemed to completely dry up just as I got everything cut out and ready to sew. After I did finally get it sewn up, I knew I wanted to make another, so I decided to just go ahead and make 3 and use that as my offering for the August challenge.
I made my first version from a fun floral 100% Rayon faille with the bodice lined with a bright yellow voile. My current measurements (49, 38, 48) put me in the size US 16 with a 4″ FBA. Well, I was a little confused how to do the FBA without a side dart, so I sorta did it the normal way, adding a side dart, then rotated it into the kimono sleeve a little and the bulk of it into the waist pleat. However, after I cut my fabric, I realized in all my research and confusion, I forgot to halve my adjustment amount and ended up adding 4″ to the pattern piece, which means I added 8″ total to the bodice front. Doh. And my method also didn’t add any length to the piece. So the waist seam is way too high in the front. But I ended up fiddling with the pleats quite a bit and moving where they are in the original pattern until I thought the dress didn’t look too bad.
I thought it would be a fun thing to try adding a waist stay. I read up quite a bit on how to do this and I decided to go with the method shown in this Sewaholic tutorial. This dress didn’t have a heavy skirt or a strapless bodice, so I mostly wanted it to take the strain off the zipper at the waistline and to make it a bit easier to zip up myself. But you can see from the pictures above that the front of the waist seam is much higher than the back.
I’ve worn this dress twice and got several compliments on it both times, so i guess I’m not the only one who thinks it doesn’t look too bad.
So, I fixed the FBA issue for my second version, which I made from a 100% cotton double gauze in blue plaid. But after wearing it to work yesterday, I think I need to take a little of the length of the front bodice back out. It’s not really very noticeable in these photos, but the waist seam stays pretty much right where it’s supposed to and the bodice poofs out a bit right above in a way I don’t like.
I cut the fabric trying to match the plaid at the center front, completely forgetting that the skirt has a pleat right in the front. However, when I first basted the bodice and skirt together, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the plaid was very close to matching up.
So I fiddled with the pleats a bit to just shift the fabric around within the existing pleats to make it match better.
So much better! I love how it turned out.
After my blue plaid Zeena was already mostly assembled, I noticed that when I wore my brown floral Zeena the zipper bulged out a bit at the lower back where it could use a sway back adjustment. So, I took a 1″ wedge out of the center back bodice for my third version, which I made out of a lovely ikat stripe print Rayon Challis (sold out) from Fabric Mart. And, of course none of the photos of the back of this dress turned out. But I do have dressform photos.
While cutting out this third Zeena, I had some issues because the fabric’s pattern repeat is pretty large, so I couldn’t cut the full midi length skirt (which is actually knee length on me.) And of course, I didn’t notice until I had already cut the skirt front and went to cut the back, matching the stripes.
I cut it as long as I could with the fabric I had, and it ended up about 3 1/2 inches shorter than the other two. But I think it was fortuitous since the shorter length paired with this fabric comes off nice and sassy, while the longer length makes the brown floral dress look classy and gives the plaid version a lovely 50s housewife feel that I am totally into.
This post has been a long time coming. I mentioned a few times in the past that I wanted to put together a rhythm dress. Well, I put one together and wore it to my last dance competition.
This project all started with a dress made from a gorgeous purple slinky knit that I found in a thrift shop in Laguna Beach for $5.
Then I cut the bottom of the dress off asymmetrically.
I purchased some 6″ lilac chainette fringe. I sewed a row on upside down about 1/2″ from the cut edge along the bottom edge of the dress with a zigzag stitch, right sides together.
I turned the edge under under to create the hem and then sewed a second row of the fringe just above the hemline, but close enough that I caught the turned up edge of the dress hold it in place.
So I ended up with two rows of fringe along the bottom of the dress, so it looks nice and full.
The fringe doesn’t stretch, so I was a bit concerned that the stitching might end up popping, but that part of the dress doesn’t end up getting stretched out and since it’s applied on an angle, there hasn’t been a problem yet.
For this to be a “proper” dance dress, it needs to have a built-in leotard. In comes Jalie Bella fit and flare dress pattern. The dress in this pattern is basically the same as the one I purchased — an armhole princess seamed fit and flare dress, but it has an optional leotard underneath.
I made what was basically a muslin of the leotard in a blue nylon/lycra activewear knit that I had in my stash. According to the pattern measurements, I needed to add 2″ to the length and that was the only alteration I did to the pattern. It fit perfectly, so I made it again in this swimwear knit that I purchased from Pacific Fabrics because it matched both the purple of the dress body and the lilac of the fringe. I used the blue muslin leotard as a lining to this leotard.
After trying them on together to see how it looked, I decided that I would like to open up the neckline more and make the purple dress sit off my shoulders and show off a little skin and a little more of the leotard fabric.
I also have discovered that, even though these dresses have a lot of stretch in them, I don’t want to pull them up over my head because I’ll end up messing up my hair and makeup that I sat and had done so beautifully by the wonderful professionals at these events. I designed my green Modern Nature smooth dance dress to pull on like a swimsuit, but the neckline ended up getting pretty stretched out after I decorated it with the rhinestones and pull it on that way a dozen or so times. So I’ve decided that I need to add zippers to my ballroom dresses from now on. So, I ripped open the back seam of the dress and added an invisible zipper. The dress and the leotard are joined at the zipper and I also sewed them together along the front where the purple dress comes straight across the front of the leotard.
Here’s a photo of me and my instructor Yaunique at the Portland DanceORama.
And here are a few action shots that the professional photographers at Maude Productions took at the Portland DanceORama
I have purchased some rhinestones and plan on decorating my new rhythm dress soon. I really like the way it looks now and I’m a little afraid that adding the rhinestones will detract from the simple beauty of the dress. But I also really want a super sparkly dress to wear too!
Edit 6/21: I forgot to add a link to one of my dance videos so you could see the dress in action. I have a few videos in this dress that you can see on my YouTube channel, but the Bolero is the only rhythm dance we actually have choreography for and the other Bolero video is to a cover of the M.I.A song Paper Planes, which just felt strange to dance to, even though Yaunique did actually remember to do the dip in that one. 🙂
May is inspiration month at The Monthly Stitch. I have noticed that I have many dresses made out of fabric with lovely prints. So, the easiest way for me to put together an outfit is to make leggings and/or cardigans in solid colors, neither of which I’ve successfully made yet (perhaps foreshadowing IPM…?) So, as I was looking through TMS archives to find an inspirational post, this one for Rosemary’s Fabulously Red Lady Skater caught my eye. It’s a solid color, it’s my favorite dress pattern, it’s red, which I’ve traditionally avoided wearing, but lately have been told I should wear it more often. So that seemed like a perfect dress to copy. Especially since I even already had fabric on hand.
I had recently picked up some Rose Red Poly/Lycra Abstract Jacquard Double Knit from Fabric Mart with the intention of making myself a red dress.
And here’s a photo I took of it to show off the texture.
I’ve made the Kitschy Coo Lady Skater several times, but I tried something a bit different with this one. The fabric is a bit scratchy, so I decided to line it with something that would feel better against my skin. So I chose a very soft black and red animal print rayon blend jersey that I picked up from a flawed fabric bargain lot from Girl Charlee. At first I only planned to line the bodice, but as I was constructing it, I thought about how the waist seam would end up being itchy and the dress being on my legs sitting at my desk all day might bug me too, so I cut the skirt pieces too. I sandwiched the pieces together at the waist seam, as I did with the plaid version I made at the end of last year. I didn’t line the sleeves, but my insides were looking so good that I thought maybe I would try a French seam to attach the sleeve. This red fabric is pretty thick, so both of those plans were just terrible ideas. Granted, I didn’t clip the curve of the sleeve seam, but still, the thickness of the French seam made the shoulder look bumpy and very bad. Luckily, I only did one before I realized it was a mistake. As for the waist seam, I just felt like the seam was too visibly bulky with all 4 fabrics joined together like that, and all 4 steam allowances all bunched up together. So I started ripping out seams. Which added a week to this project. Mostly because I pouted some for a while at the fact that I had to do so much seam ripping and also because the lighting in my comfy spots are terrible for being able to rip out stitching that so closely matches the thread to the fabric. But I did find some daylight times to be able to do it eventually. Once I reassembled the dress with the lining hanging completely separate, the dress looked so much better constructed than it did previously. And I just love how it looks on the hanger with the black and red animal print peeking out.
Here’s the finished dress inside out on my dress form.
I even added French tacks to keep the lining from shifting around too much. I followed this tutorial from Ohhh Lulu.
And here I am wearing it out in the driveway.
My husband and I walked down to the park at the end of the street to take these photos. Not many turned out very great. Here’s me doing my best Vanna White impression.
And this one was me trying to act shocked in response to my husband making some crack about how he’s stalking me in the woods. My new glasses have transition lenses, so I don’t really notice them changing and am always surprised to see I’m wearing sunglasses in my photos. haha.
I have made many Kitschy Coo Lady Skaters and this is the latest. I cut this out several weeks ago and finally got around to sewing it up last Friday.
I love this pattern so much. To call it TNT would be a huge understatement. It’s my Go To dress, especially if I only have 2 yards of a fabric.
I had heard that making it in Ponte de Roma makes a very nice draping version and I’m quite pleased with how this one turned out. I have a couple more ponte fabrics that are destined to be new Lady Skaters.
After I made my first version, I shortened the bodice by an inch and made the shoulders a bit more narrow, but those are the only alterations I did to the pattern that I have used over and over. Oh, except adding pockets, of course. I use the pocket piece from my Colette Moneta to make in-seam pockets and place them 4 inches down from the top of the skirt piece.
This dress is a fast make and I can practically do it with my eyes closed by now. But I love how the fit and flare style looks on my body, so I’m always happy to have another to add to my wardrobe.
I made a straight 52 exactly as the pattern is drafted. After I made it up, the back bodice was pooling around my badonkadonk, so I shortened the middle of the back bodice about an inch and graded out to nothing at the side seams.
It’s hard to see, but this is where the waist piece sits when I pull the back down to where it is supposed to be.
Here is where it goes after I’ve moved around and the waist piece goes where it naturally wants to.
I’ll shorten the entire bodice a bit on the next version and lengthen the skirt to make up the difference.
I also took the side seams in quite a bit. I marked all these adjustments on the pattern so the next one I make should fit better right from the start.
For some crazy reason, I decided to play with my decorative stitches on my machine for the sleeve and skirt hems.
It is subtle but I think it adds a very awesome touch. I will likely be doing this for other dresses in the future.
I’ve been wearing it to run around and do errands and tool around the house. When I first made it, I thought it was too short for me to feel comfortable wearing, “for real,” but I really like it and I already know what fabric I’m using for the next one.
I made Sew Over It’s 40s Tea Dress. I’ve had the pattern for a while. A couple weekends ago I taped it together and graded it up two sizes. Then I cut it out of a light blue floral satin from FFC that I had purchased with the intention of using it for a muslin for another dress. But plans changed, so I thought it would be good for a wearable muslin for this dress. I sewed it up this past weekend.
I graded up the pattern by just increasing each pattern piece by the same amount as the difference between the largest size and the size two below that. It worked out pretty well, but I think I still need to do an FBA. The seam that connects the bust pieces to the waist is too high. I even decreased my shoulder seam allowance to 3/8 in after I tried the bodice on. That helped a bit, but I still need some adjustments there.
The dress was shorter than I expected. I actually think the length looks good on me, but I have a (wonky) tiny rolled hem. I didn’t dare do more than that. So my next version will be lengthened.
The sleeves are too tight for my massive biceps (read: fat arms) even after reducing the seam allowance there as well, so I need to fix that for next time.
I’m not sure if I like the puffy shoulders. I need to wear it more and think about it a bit.
I hate the neckline facings. I wore the dress out last night and they kept flipping up. I tacked them down a little more last night after I got home, but I think they are going to still be a problem. Here’s a photo on my dress form after I tacked the facings down and ironed them extra long.
Once on my dress form, I also noticed some odd pulling on the back of the left shoulder. I clearly did something wrong, because the other shoulder isn’t like that.
Overall I really like the dress and will make at least one more with the noted alterations.
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