I instantly loved the dress. It went together so quickly and easily. I even topstitched around the neck cause it was all going so well. I do need to press the hem again; I did a blind stitch hem and it's not quite flat in a few spots. I wore the dress quite a few times, but never got a picture.
However, this always happens to my rayon fabrics (this fabric was another Value Village find). It gets a halo. Not pilly, like a sweater, but it fuzzes up and looks faded. So now it looks even more casual. But I still love it.
Around this same time, I bought a dress from Avon. It is a slinky material, but the print is so similar. It's much smaller scale, but I like it. It had a "shark bite" hem. Instead of a hi-lo, where the front is high and the back low, this is high in the middle, and low at the sides. Totally odd, and totally too long for me. So I shortened it and made it even all around. Then I took the extra, and made pockets!! Of course! Why wouldn't I? I love this too, but it is an "infinity" dress and I find I can't drive with the knot at my back. I was thinking I might make the straps narrower, but I do want to hem, or just serge? No sleeves on this dress LOL.
Excited by my new t-shirt dress pattern, I grabbed some more fabric. Initially, this was going to be a shirt for Hugh, but he wears too many stripes, and there was so much fabric (bought in a FB de-stash group), that I figured I should make something that actually uses a lot of fabric. Right?
It looks good, right? OMG. This dress nearly killed me. Would you like a list of all the ways you can mess up one item?!
That's a pocket. One side was sewn on the right side. Fixed it. I think the pockets took a couple tries and still ended up rather low.
I don't remember what happened it, but I assume it wasn't good.
While serging the skirt together, the underside got caught up. So I had to take the seam in and lose some fullness.
I could NOT get the stripes to match. I basted, I sewed instead of serged. Like, WTF. Two spots here it got puckered and nothing matched up.
I finally got some of the washable WonderTape. Carefully applied it, basted, then serged. It STILL shifted!!! Not only did it shift, but somehow the stripes angle downwards at the seams. WTF. How do you stop that?!
Time for the neckband. Surely I've done everything wrong by now. No, somehow I got this little tail of fabric sticking out of the neckband, on the right side. I just trimmed it really close.
And I have no clue why it decided to sag. I guess this fabric is thinner and stretchier, and needed a smaller band. F you dress.
By the time I got to the hem, I was ready to just leave it raw. I keep reading about how "knits don't fray", but you know what? They DO. They ladder. So I still like to hem them. And of course, no amount of pressing and WonderTape would make this hem lay flat.
It sort of sags in the back. The stripe matching isn't too bad, in the end, but for all that work, it should have been perfect.
I feel like this one makes me look frumpier than the black print one. The way the stripes curve downwards at the side seam? After I washed it the second or third time, I forgot it in the dryer and it got totally dry. When I took it out, it looked like it shrunk. But once on, it fit really well. However, the last time I washed it and later tried it on, the upper back was all stretched out, it looked horrible, I don't know what happened. Maybe it was too damp when I hung it to dry? Maybe it got stretched out in the washing machine and then not enough time in the dryer? Then I tried it on again and decided to just wear it. It seemed fine after awhile.
The fabric is quite thin, and really needs a slip to be work-appropriate. I think I wore it once to work. It feels super comfy.
So, while I loved these dresses, this one was like the younger sibling that was trying to upstage the older, perfect child. What happens if I try for dress #3?
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