Two more knit dresses.

When I showed you my Pucci Swirls dress a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that it was my practice run for a couple dresses I wanted to make for the spring.  Last week I made them both up on the same day, production-line style. 

I learned my lesson from the Pucci Swirls dress re: having the print straight at the hem as well as meeting at the sides.  So this time, before I even got started, I traced the front and back pieces again then taped them along the center to the original pieces to get a full pattern piece.  I'm glad I decided to do it that way instead of flipping the half piece:  it allowed me to see exactly what the whole front or back would look like.  I have a little bit of trouble visualizing that from just a half piece.

These two dresses were made from fabrics I bought on sale at Girl Charlee in the fall.  All winter, I daydreamed about making them up and wearing them in the spring.  But our winter was longer than usual, and I wasn't able to get enthused about actually making them until last week.  I'm so glad I got them done though, because now it's full-on spring, and I'm wearing dress #1 today!

Neon stripes!  Yowza!  When I bought these sandals, I thought they were really bright orange - but they pale next to the insanely bright orange in this dress!

You can see that I got the hem in line with the stripe, but it wasn't easy - the fabric was a little skewed.  Also, the hemline of this dress is slightly curved, which makes things a little harder with stripes! I made sure to match the stripes at the side seams:

And did the zigzag hem again:

The only problem I had is that as I was getting ready to put on my neck binding, I discovered a tiny hole in the fabric in the upper back :-(  This has happened to me more than once with knit fabrics.  Fortunately, the hole was quite small, so I popped on some fusible tricot inside.  I'm hoping it holds - I'd really hate for this dress to get ruined quickly.  These colors make me happy.

I saved the best for last.  Here is my new favorite dress for spring:

I. Love. This. Dress.  This is my #1 favorite fabric I have ever bought from Girl Charlee.  Stripes AND flowers - what's not to love?!  This one is also on the heavier side, so this dress feels a little more substantial than the others.

These stripes are so irregular that I didn't even bother trying to match them at the sides:

But I don't think it takes away from the dress.  There's a lot going on here!  When I bought the fabric, I thought the stripes were navy, but I think they're actually black.  I don't mind though - that expands the possibilities of things to wear with the dress.

I love this pattern so much, and I'm finding myself reaching for these dresses when I get dressed.  I'm planning on going through my shrinking stash to see if I have anything appropriate for another.  But first I've got some gift sewing to do :-)

Testing, testing . . .

For a long time, I've been thinking of drafting the Renfrew t-shirt into a tee dress;  I'd planned on using the skirt portion of the Mission Maxi to just extend the top.  But then a couple weeks ago I came across this pattern at the sale at JoAnn's:

Simplicity 2054

And I thought, "For $2, why should I re-invent the wheel?"

Last weekend I had time to trace it out and make up my first version.  Looking at the finished measurements, I decided to go with a size 12 for the bust and size 14 in the hips.  Although my body measurements put me in a size 10 at the bust, I felt there might not be enough ease the way the pattern was drafted, and I wanted a looser fit there.

The design is a very basic shift-style tee dress, with three sleeve variations and an optional cowl.  I went with the elbow-length sleeves as these are generally the most practical for me.

For my test run, I used a cotton/lycra faux-ikat jersey I'd gotten from Girl Charlee a few months ago.  It was a piece of fabric I was disappointed with once I saw the real thing, so there was no risk if the dress didn't work out!  I sewed it almost entirely on my serger, only using my sewing machine for the hems, which I did with a zigzag stitch.

The pattern instructs you to sew the sleeve and side seams and then set in the sleeves, but I chose to sew the sleeve heads into the armscye flat and then do one long seam from the hem edge of the sleeve to the bottom of the skirt.  I think this was easier with knit fabric and didn't seem to affect the fit of the sleeve cap.

But, my first dress came out too big.  This is partly because I wasn't really paying close attention, and sewed the seams with a 3/8" rather than a 5/8" seam allowance!  When I tried it on, it was so loose I realized what I'd done, and went back and redid the armscye seam.  After which, I realized I should have stuck with the size 10 bust after all!  Here's the first, fixed dress:

I'm not sure if it comes through in this picture, but there is a lot of extra room and fabric under the arm.  However, I ended up really liking the fabric - it has a really nice heft and drape, and I don't even mind the print so much now.  Hubby really liked this dress - go figure!

The next day, I decided to try it again, so I redrew my pattern pieces down to the size 10 for the bust, shoulders, sleeves and waist, leaving everything beneath the waist as it was.  This time I used the fabric I really wanted to make this dress in, a charcoal grey argyle print, also from Girl Charlee.  I did everything the same, this time remembering to use 5/8" seam allowances, and got a result I'm really happy with:

Hubby likes this one even better!

Much better fit!  And soooooo comfy!  I'm planning a slew of these dresses!

Here are some comparison photos between the first dress and the second:

Less excess under the arm.

Much better fit at the shoulders.

From the back.  I could probably use a tiny swayback adjustment here.

I haven't seen a whole lot of renditions of this pattern out there in blogland, but I think it's a really great basic, wearable piece that can serve as a template for all kinds of variations.  I'm already thinking of adding some ruching to the sleeves of the white one.

And I've already ordered some more fabric to make a few for spring . . .