Victory Pattern 1002: Hacked Ava dress

This poor pattern doesn't really resemble the original Ava dress anymore! I needed a dress with a zipper for the morning of my friends wedding and wanted a comfy knit one so that's how this dress idea was born. I wanted it different enough from my last version too which is why I changed the back and added sleeves.

Fabric: Blue spandex knit from Spotlight and a mixture of bias binding on the waistband and some black knit for the neckline and sleeve binding. The lace is a remnant from Clear It.

Adjustments;
Same as last time;
Size 14
Added 1" FBA
Changed darts into princess seams
Added the waistband.
Dropped the neckline by 1"
Sewed the side seams last and took it in by 1/2" each side.
Made the length somewhere in between the short and long length.
Added pockets from the Burda dress I last made.

Plus - morphed the back pattern pieces into one then added the lace cut-out.
Added sleeves

The sleeves were a bit of a fiddle - I forgot to add extra seam allowances onto the armscye so there is some slight pulling at the front. I do like the shape of them though - they are based a bit on the Colette macaron sleeves except I just hacked at the sleeve until I liked the shape!

There is some slight hitching at the front - having the knit as the bodice top instead of lace made it sit slightly higher and really needs 1/2" or so added to the bodice length.

I like how the bias binding highlights the interesting seamlines on this pattern and I really love the lace - I still have a reasonable amount left so expect to see it again!

 

Victory Patterns 1002: Ava Dress

I seem to be going back through my old patterns lately and sewing them up! I made this as the blouse a couple of years ago. I always wore it with a wide belt though as it had a tendency to poof out on my stomach so I got rid of it in the big wardrobe cull of 2015.
This time I wanted to correct the things that bothered me with the first version - added a waistband to eliminate the poofyness, used smaller bias binding to make the binding sit smoother, got rid of the darts and added princess seams. Otherwise its a fairly similar colour palette - purple ponte and a basic black lace!

Pattern details;

Size 14
Added 1" FBA
Changed darts into princess seams
Added the waistband.
Dropped the neckline by 1"
Left out the zipper (hooray for ponte!)
Sewed the side seams last and took it in by 1/2" each side.
Took 1.5cm out of the bodice length (once the skirt was added the weight dropped it all too low)
Made the length somewhere in between the short and long length.
Added pockets from the Burda dress I last made


Fabric;
Ponte from Clear-It
Lace from the salvos (its just a cheap Spotlight one though)

Insides are all serged and I reinforced the shoulder seams with some selvage since the dress is quite heavy

I like how unpretentious this dress is in regards to sewing the lace, no fanciness, just sew it up like any other fabric. For someone who's still a little scared of lace I like how basic it is. No couture techniques here, just serge it all up and no worries!

I'm really happy with it, its a pretty dress that I can still wear with a shrug to work. And I am so much happier with the fit now compared to my first attempt!

Daughter approved!

BurdaStyle FS/2014 : Smocked back dress

I've been eyeing off a dress at City Chic for ages and planned on copying it, right down to the colour. But after I started to muslin this pattern I decided I liked the muslin fabric enough to finish it!

 

Pattern details;
Burdastyle dress download
Size 44
1" FBA
Omitted the front button band
Gathered the skirt instead of pleats
Cut the same pattern piece for front and back skirt (the back skirt is very straight and I wanted more flare)
Left out the facings and used bias binding
Added a waistband.
Added the top bias band. I did trial it on the top edge sitting up and also folded down but liked it a lot more folded down.

Fabric details:
Sateen from Spotlight - I bought this years ago and then fell out of love with it and its sat in my muslin bin for ages.

Because the sateen is so thick I stitched channels for 6mm elastic instead of using shirring thread. It makes a heavier more stable elastic panel but its quite comfortable to wear. You do have to watch that its not too tight though as the last dress I did this on it tended to collapse and crease when wearing, but I overfitted it and this time it seems to be sitting fine.

I really like the pockets, having them built into the front skirt makes it really easy to sew the side seams up last.

I'm still not completely convinced by the straps, I had planned on doing adjustable ones but thought I'd try out the double straps, they may get replaced later though!

Insides are all serged and bias binding at the top edge.

Now to make the next version in navy with buttons!

Colette Macaron 1001: Macaron dress

 

This poor pattern has been totally hacked and changed from the original this time. I sit a lot in my job and I found the original skirt was quite poofy when I was sitting but I also hated the full circle skirt version I made (I never even wore it after the photos, gave it to the salvos instead). This is maybe a 1/4 circle skirt and it seems to work really well.

I had trouble fitting this dress, it seems the combination of a changing shape and using a knit that has 4 way stretch made it too long. I'd basted it together for a try on and I'm glad I did because I ended up unpicking it more times than I'd like to admit to get it to fit better!
I changed construction order too - so the side seams were the last to be sewn up. This is my new favourite technique, makes it so easy to adjust at a later date.

Pattern details;
Size 12 knit yoke (got the idea from Patty the Snug Bug)
Size 18 bodice with the darts converted into princess seams
Skirt is from Newlook 6390

Fabric details; Sateen is from Spotlight and the knit is from GJ Discount fabrics. I'm slowly sewing through my stash!

Cake 0144: Tiramisu Dress

I'm on a stash busting mission at the moment so sewing through what I have - I got this jersey from Rathdowne Fabrics a year or two ago. Its got great recovery and is a nice medium weight.
I've made this dress a couple of times now but mostly with crappier knits so this dress should *fingers crossed* last a lot longer.

Because this is only a medium weight, I wanted the waistband to have more heft to it so I cut 2 and interfaced them both with a weft interfacing. This gives it a lot more stability and helps it sit smoother when wearing the dress.

I did my same adjustments as last time - the back is a 45, front is a 40D and the waistband/skirt is a 42.5". I extended the sleeves by 1.5" and widen them slightly by about .5".
Except I added to the bust length, this pattern is meant to be sewn without having to add a FBA but I found with me the length through the bodice I just way too short.

I got myself a coverstitch machine this year, talk about a learning experience with it though! I've been using serger thread and had it skipping stitches a lot, I've swapped over to proper poly machine thread now and it seems to be stitching a lot better. I used the coverstitch on my hems and bindings.

I've had a huge sew-jo drop in the last couple of months, this dress is not my best sewing (the waistband doesn't line up perfectly on the side and I should have cut the pockets out with a better stripe placement) but it was nice to just sew without stressing out about the little things!

McCalls 6754: knit dress

Time to battle my arch nemesis again - raglan sleeves! I've had this dress sitting on my wadder shelf for a few months, I had this idea that I could make a knit pattern out of sateen and I just couldn't get the fit right (no big surprises there...). A lot of the fit problems disappeared once I made it in a knit......


Pattern details:
I made view D, the full skirted dress with sleeves.
Sz XL
1" FBA
1.5" added to the sleeve cap length
Added 3" to the skirt length
Added 2" to sleeve length
Added 3" wide waistband
Added inseam pockets





I need to the some length out the back next time, looking at these photos I have some excess there.

The fabric is a medium weight cotton knit, its pretty stiff but is surprisingly nice in a dress. I added the neckline binding instead of turning and topstitching.

So raglan sleeves, I have come to the conclusion that raglan sleeves will have draglines but there is a difference between normal lines and uncomfortable lumps of fabric. Happily for me, adding the sleeve cap length gets rid of a lot of the excess fabric and makes them a lot more comfortable plus gives me more movement so I can live with a few lines.

I haven't been able to find any real advice in adding to a raglan sleeve cap length and have just been adding height across the arm pattern piece and dropping the underarm seam to allow for the extra sleeve cap height, if anyone can refer me to a book/source or give me some information it would be great!

I found the skirt really short, I've added 3" to the length and I still had to add the waistband to drop it lower. I'm glad I added the waistband though, I really like the look with this dress and I'll be doing it again!

I actually like this more than the lady skater dress, a princess seam bodice is always going to fit better on me and I like that the skirt is full without being a circle skirt (its roughly about a 3/4 circle skirt). Plus with the added length to the skirt and arms I can wear it to work and what's not good about wearing what is essentially pyjamas to work all day!