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Category: knit dress (page 2 of 2)

Polka dot Laurel

July 27, 2015 / / 1 Comment

I’ve had this dress cut out for a few weeks.  I finally have a good amount of time for sewing and have gotten around to sewing it up.  I saw a photo that someone made of the GreenStyle Laurel in a Facebook group I’m in and I knew I had to make one.  It uses 2 yards, even for the largest size, which makes it perfect to use with a knitfix fabric.

I would call this a wearable muslin, but I compared the pattern with my TNT Lady Skater and so I knew it would fit and just dove in using my good fabric.  The fabric is a lovely rayon spandex knit with a very fluid drape.  I knew I had to try the cowl neckline with it.

My husband and I went to see Grease downtown tonight and these photos were taken before the show, some in our neighborhood and some across the street from the theatre.  You can see the reflection of the marquee in some of the photos.

It’s a bit longer than the other dresses I’ve been wearing lately.  I’m not sure the length is very flattering on me, so I might take up an inch or two.  Also, in case you are wondering, I am not wearing white stockings.  Yes, my legs really are that pale.  What can I say?  I’m a Seattleite who avoids the sun at all costs.

I made a straight 3xl and it fits nice in the bust, but the waist is loose and I feel like it poofs out a bit making my tummy looking even bigger than it really is.  It doesn’t bother me enough to take this one in, but the next one I make I’ll grade down to an XL at the waist and probably the hips too.

Overall, I really like this dress, as does my hubby.  I’m excited to have discovered another TNT dress pattern that I can make out of only 2 yards and I can’t wait to make my next one!

Pride dress

July 2, 2015 / / 5 Comments

My daughter has been going to the Seattle Gay Pride parade for the past several years and has always really enjoyed it.   I’ve never gone before and I decided that this year I would rectify that.  After the Supreme Court decision last Friday and seeing the rainbows everywhere I decided that I needed to wear something special.

So on Saturday I went to JoAnn’s and bought 1 yard each of the rainbow in knit.
Then I went home, tossed my new fabric in the washing machine and sketched a few designs.

My husband liked view A best, but I decided on C anyway.
So, I took my TNT Kitschy Coo Lady Skater pattern and divided the skirt piece into 3 even pieces by measuring the waist seam and the hem and dividing by 3 and sewing a line between them.

Then I took the bodice pieces and equally divided the waist seam by 3 and then referred to my sketch and eyeballed where I should put the other end of each dividing line and drew them in.
I then traced each piece, adding a 3/8″ seam allowance to each new seam line and to the center edge, since it’s normally cut on the fold and will now have a seam too.
You may be able to see that I noted on each piece what colors that piece would be and I’m so glad I did that ahead of time because that’s a lot of pieces to cut out.

Once I had everything cut out, I just sewed each individual piece back together and then assembled the dress as usual.

I added in seam pockets, as I do with all my lady skaters now (in fact I’m going to go back and put them in my first one.)  I cut one pocket lining out of the red and one out of the purple and as I was assembling the dress, I thought it would be fun to swap the linings so the red lining is on the purple side and vice versa.

And here is the dress in action.

I’m so very pleased with how it turned out.  There are a few minor things that I’m not happy with.  Since it was a last minute project, I was stuck with the fabric that I could find locally, so the red is a lot softer and thinner than the others and is the only one with a 4 way stretch, so that side of the dress just droops down a bit more.  And the orange is the only one that has spandex in it, so the dress got bigger as the day went on.  But overall, it’s the dress I’m the most proud of so far.

Evolution of a ballroom dance gown – part 3

May 9, 2015 / / 0 Comments

With one somewhat successful-ish dance dress under my belt, I set out to try again.  This time I used a ITY Spring Green Jersey Knit that I purchased from Fashion Fabrics Club.

I liked the fit of the last dress I made pretty well, so I started with the pattern I had used with that and shortened it to be just the bodice again.  I also cut the center front panel to create more of a sweetheart neckline.

For the skirt, I don’t really remember what I did, but it’s a 6 panel skirt with the seams matching the princess seams of the front bodice.  I decided that I wanted even a bit more swish to the skirt, so I added some godets in the seams.  I went with this yellow glitter knit because it looked nice at JoAnn’s (it was a last minute purchase) and it pulled in the yellow color from the rhinestones I had purchased to decorate this dress.
Here’s a photo of me modeling once the initial construction was complete.

I had purchased 5 yards of the green fabric, not really knowing how much I was going to use.  I believe that was the same amount I had purchased for my previous dress.  I cut two bodices in the green and a third in a swimsuit lining to be next to my skin.  I assembled the outer bodice and used the swimsuit lining and the other green pieces together, with the swimsuit lining being the “right” side of the construction.  So when I joined the two bodices together, all the seams were hidden between the layers of fabric.  I sewed everything together at the neckline and sewed elastic to the inner most layer with a 3 step zigzag stitch (I learned my lesson from the last version!)  Then folded it all over to the inside and zigzagged it again to have a clean edge.
The bottom end of the inner bodice was left hanging.  I had thought I would end up adding a second layer of skirts to create an underdress, like Laura La Gassa shows in her step by step gown construction post, but I haven’t done that (yet?)  I also figured I could sew in some swimsuit bottoms to finish off an inner leotard, but I also haven’t done that yet either.  Although I planned this dress for a while and purchased most of the materials early, I had to rush it at the end so that I could do at least a little decorating before I wore it.
I added a flowering vine-like pattern around the entire neckline, with a little more detail in the center front.  

I also started on a waist design, as you can see in the photo above.  But attaching all those rhinestones is very time consuming, so after several evenings working on it, I ended up needing to stop to let everything dry and cure in time for my competition.  So I just have a strange blob of rhinestones on the front of my waist.
Here are a couple photos from the competition last year when I first wore it.
And here is a video of my foxtrot solo where you can see how it moves.

I wore this dress again a few times since then, including to another competition a couple weeks ago, but I’ve modified it quite a bit, so more to come on that soon!

Evolution of a ballroom dance gown – part 2

May 7, 2015 / / 0 Comments

With my lesson learned about dancing in bedclothes, I decided to go for making an actual dance dress for the longer version of my Viennese Waltz routine.  I stopped in to Pacific Fabrics and found a lovely maroon slinky knit and a lovely black and white stretch floral netting.  I liked how the maroon under the netting gave it more of a purple appearance.

So I took the pattern pieces I had altered previously for the blanket version and removed some of the width to remove the excess ease since I wanted the knit version to be close to my body.  I also omitted the peplum and lengthened the bodice pieces to be floor length.  I didn’t put the netting over the center front piece to make it reminiscent of the Renaissance/Baroque style ball gown.

Also, dance dresses usually have built in leotards so that you don’t have to worry about what you are wearing under the dress.  So I turned to my handy dandy Kwik Sew’s Swim & Action Wear book and used that to create a leotard.  I ended up inserting it inside out, so I hacked at it a bit so that it doesn’t look horrible.

And here’s a video of me dancing it it.  The neckline really needs to have elastic inserted to keep it up better and the skirt doesn’t move as much as I had hoped.  I have extra material and someday I might end up going back to hack at this dress some more to make it work better.  As it is, I haven’t worn it again since this dance.

During the creation of this dress, my Singer machine started acting up so much that it was no longer productive to use at all.  So I borrowed a Pfaff sewing machine from a friend of a friend to finish the dress and I fell in love with her machine.  Thus, when I finally broke down and purchased a new machine, I splurged and managed to get the floor model of the Pfaff Expressions 150.

To be continued…

Evolution of a ballroom dance gown – part 1

April 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been taking dance lessons from an Arthur Murray franchise for several years now.  I really enjoy it, but it’s pricey.  The lessons are pricey and the events are pricey, but the gowns are insanely expensive and I just can’t bring myself to buy one of those gowns.  But, I figured I could make one.

I started by reading what I could find on the internet.  Since I start trying to do this several years ago, there wasn’t really much I could find.  But I did find this great tutorial by Laura La Gassa and I read it and geared myself up to try it on my own.  And I read every post on BGBallroom for inspiration.  
I knew how to sew and I owned a decent Singer sewing machine that got use for maybe one Halloween costume a year, if even that.  But I really had never gotten into sewing actual clothes, so there was a lot that I didn’t know yet.
My first dress I did wasn’t intended to be a dance dress, per se, but I was going to dance in it.  I was supposed to do a short Viennese Waltz routine at a Masquerade themed spotlight ball.  So, I decided I wanted something that fit the part.  
I went to a thrift store and bought a lovely mint green flocked bedspread, some off-white brocade curtains and a couple of lace doilies and I made the bodice from McCall’s 6097 and just a floor length gathered skirt with an off-white panel in the front.  
I wore a large red wig and a mask for the dance I did.  It’s funny for me to watch this video because it was well before I started working on my lovely arms, so I cringe at all my “dead arms.” 
 But I also learned that wearing basically a blanket to a dance event was not the smartest thing ever.  I was drenched in sweat before I even started dancing.  ðŸ™‚
More to come later…

Oh-la-la Cabaret outfits

April 21, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Back at the end of February, I mostly made two dresses in 4 days for a dance routine I did with one of the instructors, Emily. 

I planned, sketched and, starting with the Lady Skater pattern, made some alterations for Emily’s dress late Wed night.  I cut out and basted something together Thursday night after work and took it in to the dance studio on Friday so I could do a fitting with Emily. It fit very nicely and didn’t need any sizing adjustments. 

Then I went home and started patterning my own dress. Saturday morning I went to Jo-Ann’s to pick up some black ribbon and found a couple packages of really pretty black lace and sequins trim for cheap. Then I went home and worked more on Emily’s dress and made a dress for me. 

They aren’t as finished as I would like, but they look great and I’m really proud of them. The neckline on Emily’s dress looked horrible in the back because I didn’t stretch the elastic enough when attaching to the dress, so it gaped a ton.  But it more or less did the job anyway.

Both dresses are fully lined, with the skirt lining being red, so we could hike up the black skirt to show the red lining.  We both have the skirts safety pinned to show off the under layer and we are also both wearing black petticoats underneath.  Also, I angled the waistline seam so that the bodice joined the skirt in a V in both the front and the back.  It’s not as obvious on Emily’s dress since the point is black on both the bodice and the skirt, but it is a little more noticeable on my dress.

I didn’t want them to be super matchy-matchy.  But I love the color blocking I did on the bodice of Emily’s dress so much that I wish I’d done it on mine as well.  

Here’s the video of our performance.  Apparently, I couldn’t stop touching my own butt, so I really messed up the ending and kind of muddled through it.  But I had a blast working on this dance with Emily and learning a few more girly moves.

Seahawks dress!

March 3, 2015 / / 0 Comments

I decided to made a dress to wear to the Superbowl.  I found some lovely navy and lime knit fabrics in perfect Seahawks colors.

I modified the Lady Skater pattern to mimic this very lovely sketch.  (I’ve never claimed to be an artist.)

I just copied the curved line at the bottom of the cap sleeve piece to it apart for the stripes and then added a seam allowance to where it would be joined up.  The skirt I attempted to make the green parts be inverted box pleats but my math didn’t quite work out because I didn’t allow for the blue fabric to have to be folded over on top of the green at the waistline.  duh!  But I like the way it turned out anyway.

Aside from the “12” which will be an appliqué or something that I may be brave enough to add later, I feel like I did a good job of realizing what I sketched.

And here she is on my dress form.

I ended up wearing my #3 Wilson jersey over it at the game, so you can’t see the full dress.  But it was a big hit.  And even though the game didn’t have the outcome we had hoped for, it was a blast being there at the Superbowl in real life with my most awesome daughter.

This trophy should have been ours!!  ðŸ™‚

Animal print Moneta

March 3, 2015 / / 0 Comments
This was my first Moneta by Colette Patterns, made in a Gray/Black Wispy Animal Print Jersey Knit from Fabric Mart. 
I made a straight XL and it’s a little tight in the bust, but not so much that it’s uncomfortable.  So when I make this dress again, I will probably add a little extra room there.  But other than that one minor complaint, I absolutely love this dress.

And here she is on my dress form.  

Teal blue prism squares Lady Skater wearable muslin

February 5, 2015 / / 0 Comments
This was my first Lady Skater dress by Kitschy Coo.  I made it back in early November.  I bought this fabric pretty cheap from Girl Charlee, and they not only still have it, but it’s even cheaper at only $1.50/yd!  I bought some more in a different color.

 It says it’s slightly flawed, but the cut I got only had visible flaws along the selvages, so it wasn’t bad at all to use for a wearable muslin.  It’s a little thin and kind of sticks together a bit, but I’m happy with the way the dress looks made out of it.  These photos were taken before I hemmed the dress.

I took this photo to remind myself to watch for pattern matching on the cuffs, which I didn’t even pay any attention to while I was cutting it out.  

I made the size 8 exactly as is.  My next version will have a few adjustments – narrowing the shoulders and shortening the bodice to have the waist fall closer to my natural waist.

Here are a couple photos of it on my dress form.

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