Back in early July, I made a dress pattern for knit fabric. Of course, there were lots of issues, many of which were my own distractedness, and some were due to the fabric. Overall, I was quite happy with it, and with the purchase of the serger, I thought I'd be whipping out comfy summer dresses by the handful.
After we got back from our trip in July, I started another dress. The fabric was a Value Village score. There was a huge amount of it. Maybe 3 yds, 60" wide. I had bought "Built by Wendy" book "Sew U, Home Stretch" and liked the pattern where she extends the shoulders to make little sleeves. I didn't want real sleeves, so I thought this would be a nice solution. However, when I went to lay out the pattern I had made, I couldn't find the front piece. In a moment of delusion, I opted to use the back piece for the front as well.
I woke up the next morning and realized my error. Duh. I couldn't believe I did that. Once I got it basted together, I had to think of how to keep the dress on my shoulders. I thought maybe I could take some brown ribbon that I had and make ties for the back neck (I have a t-shirt like that). In the end, I opted for nothing, LOL. I did find that it didn't slip too much once I had a bra on, and a little bit of fashion double stick tape helped.
This is the only picture I have of it. I've worn it a few times, but since I didn't get it finished until just before our cruise, it's season was limited. I was a little disappointed that the fabric faded a bit.
OMG, I nearly forgot the real reason this dress was nearly the end! LOL!! I had an idea to make the bodice waist be ruched. Not sure why I thought this up. I did a ton of googling and found a really nice dress that was exactly what I wanted, but out of print (OOP). I couldn't find out much about the construction, but I tried several things to try to get the ruching to look right. It kept drooping. I thought maybe I could use the earlier mentioned brown ribbon to sew three strips to keep it from drooping too much, but it still did, and it looked a little odd. I thought about just ....uh, what's that word....the elastic thread gathering....but it wasn't what I wanted, and that had been challenging with my machine. In the end, I took the inner panel that I had cut with the grain going the opposite way (to help prevent it from stretching out), and used that by itself. I thought the slight variation in the grain/pattern, would be a bit of an interest piece. Not sure that happened, but oh well.
I also could not come up with a neck finish. I wasn't too happy with the different ways I've tried knit bindings. Finally, I did an edging with the serger. Stitches very close together, with wooly nylon, but not a rolled edge. It's fine. I did rolled edges on the hem and armholes, lettuce edges actually. Oh, did I do lettuce edge on the bottom? Don't remember. I do like doing the lettuce edge--if I can't get the flat edge to look right, and not stretched, then a lettuce edge is a great solution to play up the stretch, LOL!
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