Thumbs down for scuba stripes

This dress was never meant to be. I know exactly what I like garment-wise, and a dress made from striped scuba fabric with a pleated skirt has never been on my sewing wish list. Yet here it is. All because I saw a dress on Instagram, became a tiny bit obsessed with it and couldn't rest until I'd made one for myself. The making of it was relatively easy and straight forward. Whether or not I actually like the finished dress is another matter...

The original inspiration dress in question was this lovely Emery dress by Caz.

Hers was made from a striped ponte from Minerva that was no longer in stock. What was in stock (but not at the moment) was a similar looking striped scuba knit on sale at £7.99 a metre, so I bagged two metres to experiment with.

One of the things I liked about Caz's dress was the way the bodice and skirt stripes ran in different directions. The stripes on my scuba aren't as uniform as the stripes on Caz's ponte - there are several different sections of broad, medium and narrow stripes - so I knew there'd be a bit of head scratching to get them in the exact position I wanted. I ended up with the medium stripes across the main section of the bodice and narrower stripes at the top section. Much to my delight, I then jammily managed to continue the narrow striped section down the side of the sleeves (more or less). The skirt is a mixture of everything, but it can get away with it because of the vertical stripes.

Matching arm stripes (sort of!)

Pattern-wise I used the bodice from the Lady Skater dress as it's drafted for knits and fits me well, and the pleated skirt from the Mortmain dress. The only change I made was to shorten the bodice slightly - the original length ended up too far down from my natural waist and was causing a bit of rippling. It would probably have gone unnoticed in a solid coloured fabric, but the giant stripes really emphasised it. The whole dress was sewn on my overlocker, apart from the sleeve hems which I finished with a straight stretch stitch. The neckline is finished with a plain white neckband. The skirt hem has been left unfinished as I just preferred the look of it.

One giant gamble I took when making this dress was to cut it out without allowing for a zip. The Lady Skater pattern doesn't have a zip anyway as it's designed for knits and I simply removed the zip seam allowance from the skirt pieces  Because the scuba has a good amount of stretch to it, I can get the dress on without one, so the gamble paid off, yay!

There are lots and lots of positives about this dress, along with one big, giant negative - I don't think it's very 'me'. Maybe it's a stripe too far (can there be such a thing?!) and I don't really wear this shape of dress any more. Also, despite being easy to sew with and magically stretchy, I've come to the conclusion (a bit late in the day, admittedly) that I don't particularly like scuba as a fabric. The texture always feels a bit cheap and nylon-y to me and I couldn't wait to get the dress off after taking these photos!

I debated whether to even post this dress on my blog, but I think it's always good to see dressmaking fails as well as wins. I don't regret making it and it was a lovely, stress-free dress to sew. Sometimes it's good to sew something just to get it out of your system! x

   

Two Rescued Skirts...

Last September I made a knit dress which was a mash up of the Tilly and Buttons Agnes pattern (bodice) and the Lady Skater pattern (skirt). Alas, the bodice section was cut too short and the skirt started too high up, making the dress look quite empire line. And an empire line on me is not a good look!

I didn't want to scrap it as the fabric (a grey cotton jersey gingham from Girl Charlee) was lovely, so I chopped the bodice off and made it into a skirt instead! Well, I put slightly more thought into it than that, but not much. I cut the bodice three inches above the waistline, folded the top edge in half and sewed the bottom edge to the waist seam (leaving a small gap). I then cut a piece of elastic to fit my waist, threaded it through the gap and ta-da: a new skirt!

The skirt sits just below my natural waist and is soooo comfortable. The cotton jersey is nice and lightweight for summer too - it will get a lot more wear as a skirt than it ever would have as a dress.

The skirt has been ironed, I promise you

As I was on such a triumphant skirt-making roll, I decided to rescue another one... this next skirt started life as the fitted, high waisted Megan dress from Love at First Stitch. Sadly I cut a size too small and the bodice looked so skin tight and dreadful on me that it never saw the light of day.

I didn't need to do much to rescue it. I removed the long back zip and cut the bodice off, leaving the darts exactly as they were originally sewn. I then inserted a smaller invisible zip into the back seam and finished the waistband with wide bias tape. That's it!

I didn't make the waistband as fitted as I could have which was intentional, but the darts still give it a nice shape. I now have a lovely, stretchy fitted skirt - not as super-casual as the Lady Skater skirt, but still really comfortable. Yay! 

In other news… my Big Vintage Sewalong dress is finished!! Don't forget to check in on Friday 13th May for the big reveal! x

Lady Skater - Japanese style

I made this Lady Skater dress at Christmas, but totally forgot to blog about it until I saw Jenny's gorgeous top made from the same fabric recently. As it happens, the timing is pretty fortuitous, as it's much more of a spring dress than a winter one.

The fabric I used is the most beautiful double-layered, polka dot double knit (try saying that when you've had a few!) It's from Etsy shop Miss Matatabi. The two layers are fused together at regular intervals like double gauze and it does actually feel a bit like a knit version of double gauze: very soft to the touch and super cosy. I must point out that Miss Matatabi is the most dangerous fabric shop in the world! I clicked over there just now to get a link for the fabric and saw this - an Aran-look knit fabric!! How could I possibly resist?! Answer: I couldn't, so that will be winging its way over to me from Japan soon. 

Anyway, back to the dress… I did my usual bad trick of changing bits of the pattern in order to make them fit onto the fabric available. Luckily for me, knit fabric is very forgiving! The changes I made that were different from my last version were as follows:

-  Cut a size 4 all over (last time I cut a size 5 bodice and size 4 skirt)

-  Reduced width of shoulders slightly 

-  Shortened bodice by 1 inch

-  Took 3 ½ inches from the bottom skirt curve in order to fit onto the fabric

-  Cut sleeves as a lengthened version of the cap sleeve

I was happy with the fit of my first version, but actually the changes I made this time have resulted in a much better fit all round. I'm especially pleased with the shoulders as they were definitely a bit wide. Reducing the curve of the skirt has made it more of a quarter circle than a half circle which I also prefer.

It was super easy to construct - I sewed the whole thing on my overlocker and used a double needle for the neck and sleeve bands and the hem. 

The fabric is reversible so I felt obliged to try and show off the contrast somewhere on the dress. I went with contrasting neckband and sleeve bands. But… with hindsight, I wish I hadn't made the neckband contrasting as it does give a bit of a juvenile feel. It's annoying, but not enough to make me stop wearing it!

Contrast neckband and sleeve bands

View from the inside showing the reversible fabric

What I like about this pattern is that there's a separate bodice and skirt, so the finished dress looks rather like a neat, fitted Emery or Peony dress. The added bonus is that the lack of darts and the fact that it's made from knit fabric means you can whip this beauty up in no time. Even though it's made from a knit fabric, it's actually quite light and swishy to wear, so it's going to get a second lease of life as a spring dress!  Happy Tuesday. x

Lady Skater dress

My November make for the Minerva Blogger Network is the Lady Skater dress by Kitschy Coo.  The Skater Dress was originally released as a children's pattern, but so many people asked owner Amanda  to make a larger version that she eventually caved in and drafted a grown-up version for us Lay-dees. I'm so glad she did because for me, finding this pattern was like finding the Holy Grail. I'm really not joking either - I've been on the hunt for a basic knit dress pattern forever. I mucked about with the Colette Peony pattern in the past (here and here) and to be fair, I was more than happy with the results. Both dresses get a lot of wear, the problem was that I felt I was floundering a bit during the sewing process and very much making it up as I went along. Having a perfectly drafted pattern that ticks these boxes, along with excellent online instructions, has made this dress an absolute BREEZE to sew by comparison.

You choose your size according to your high bust and high waist measurements. Annoyingly, I was slap bang in the middle of a size 4 and a size 5, so blended between the two sizes, cutting a 4 around the waist, hips and neck, and a 5 in the bust area. Amazingly, this seemed to work! Amanda strongly advises making a test muslin of the bodice fit, which for once, I fully intended to do, but the fit was pretty good so I just steamed ahead. I added clear elastic at the shoulder and waist seams as directed and they really help give the dress shape and hold the weight of the fabric. The other thing I've always struggled with when sewing knits is the neckline. They're either stretched, or too baggy, or just plain rubbish. The neckline instructions on this pattern are ACE.

The only changes I made to the pattern were to shorten the arms to allow for my T Rex affliction and to shorten the skirt very slightly. There's a super helpful bit in the pattern that indicates exactly how long the dress is in its original state. If you're interested, it's designed to just hit the knee if you're 5'5".

For fabric, I used a medium/heavy weight Ponte Roma jersey in Forest, which is a lovely quality. Soooo smooth and silky, I keep having to stop myself stroking it, it's so touchable. If you fancy making your own knit dress, then you can purchase the Lady Skater dress kit from Minerva Crafts here. The kit comprises 2m of Roma jersey in Forest, matching thread and a pack of clear elastic. This amount of fabric is enough to make a size 5, long sleeved Skater Dress and a practice bodice if you're that way inclined.

Now that I've made this once, I can see this pattern being my go-to winter dress pattern.  It's comfortable, sassy and SSOOO easy to wear, I love it! In true Lady Skater style, I leave you with my very best Jayne Torvill impression…. x

The kit was given to me free of charge as part of the Minerva Crafts Blogger Network. All views my own.