Monday, May 16, 2011

Quick Dress

A while ago I thought I might try sewing underwear.  FabricLand had a bin with stretch knit remnants and I picked a couple pieces, but once I got home I found they were rather narrow.  And this one, felt a little thick, but it probably would have been fine.  However, Meg found it a couple weeks ago and wanted me to make a wedding gown, or at least, a train (thanks Kate & Will!). 

 After the success of my last knit dress, I figured a simple dress for Meg would be nice.  At first, I had this hilarious idea of folding it in half, cutting out a neckhole and armholes, and stitching up the sides.  LOL.  But I wanted the bottom more gathered.   I took a knit tank top pattern for kids that I already had, and traced a shortened version for the top.  I actually went a little large cause I didn't want it tight, but I didn't want it too loose.  And it's a smidge loose, but actually, it's not gaping and being indecent though.
Then for the skirt, I wanted it gathered.  But when I picked up the fabric, I discovered that it's a 2-way stretch (up/down and side/side).  So, I could do the skirt in any direction, but I was worried about it being too short, although the fabric was almost square, so it didn't really matter.  I did the gathering stitch across the top of the bottom piece (which was about 4" bigger), and then pinned it to the bodice and gathered it to fit.  But as I sewed, the gathering seemed to disappear!  I don't know if that's because of the stretch, or what, but it lacks the gathered look I wanted.

About a week after creating this, I was at Value Village and found a Simplicity pattern, in the right sizes, for this style of jumper dress, in wovens.  Of course.


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