Hey you guys, I sewed something out of knit fabric! This is an excellent development as I have a growing stash of knits which I love but I was too scared to sew them for the longest time! It turns out it isn’t that scary! Ta da!
You may wonder why I started with a relatively complex pattern? Because I really wanted a maxi dress, basically. I had pinned a couple of pictures of maxi dresses on my pinterest:
I particularly like the top picture, and will definitely try to make one more of that style one day. I’d been looking out for a good pattern for ages, and then Heather Lou at Closet Case Files released the Sallie Maxi dress and Jumpsuit pattern. I definitely want to make a black jumpsuit, pretty much exactly the same as the one in the pattern photos! I don’t know how much wear I’d get out of it, though, as London hasn’t really had a Summer this year, and I’m not sure how it would look with a sweater on the top!
The same could really be said of the maxi, though. I started making it when it was hot, then it wasn’t hot anymore and I couldn’t be bothered to finish it as I didn’t envisage being able to wear it at all this year. Then it warmed up just enough, so I finished it!
The fabric is one of my many ‘remnants’ from Rolls and Rems at Holloway Road. There must have been 2 1/2 – 3m of this stuff. Not what I’d call a remnant! I can’t remember how much it was, but I fell in love with it instantly. It’s got a nice drape and is quite heavy, but a little see-through.
I made the size 4 and added 4 inches to the hem, which I knew would be more than enough, but I wanted it to skim the floor and by holding up the pattern I could see it would be kind of ankle length. I also only left the slit on one side – I wonder if I should have unpicked the side seam a bit more to make more of a split? It’s enough to walk in, so that’s what’s important.
You can almost see the fact that I underlined the skirt in some of the pictures. The fabric was really too thin to not line as I didn’t fancy everyone being able to see my pants! I thought about trying to line the skirt, but with the pockets and not having made the pattern before, I thought it would hurt my brain too much to work out a lining so I went with underlining instead. This does make it quite heavy, so I felt like I had to keep hoiking it up when I wore it (only once, to the Fashion on the Ration exhibition).
I ended up cutting off 6cm from the bottom, as it did end up too long for me. I then turned up a 1cm hem – I turned it up once instead of twice, mostly out of laziness and a desire to finish it!
The only other major change I made was how the waist seam was done – in the original pattern you top stitch the bodice and then sew the bodice to the skirt lower down that the topstitching to make the channel for the elastic. I was using white thread, though, so it looked a bit weird when you could see a line of stitching. So I unpicked it and sewed the bodice to the skirt in 2 places, at 3cm and 1.5cm, leaving a gap in the 1.5cm line for threading the elastic. You can just about see the 2 lines of stitching in the below photo.
I found I did have to re-tie the straps a couple of times when I was wearing it – I guess this is the perils of having a stretch fabric making up the ties, and with having what is now quite a heavy dress.
I found it went well with my refashioned Victoria Blazer – it picks out the right shades of blue. I feel like that’s my equivalent of a denim jacket, and that this dress would also look good with a denim jacket!
My favourite thing is POCKETS!
I found the pattern was easy to follow – which was good as this was my first make with knitted fabric. I chose this because it didn’t require much fitting – I definitely don’t have the skill to make something skin-tight yet! I definitely want to have a go at Closet Case Files’s other patterns, particularly her amazing Ginger Jeans, which have been made by basically the whole blogosphere! I love the Carolyn pajamas too!
As I’m about to publish this post, it has started pouring with rain AGAIN! I think this may have to wait for next Summer at this rate!
Ah the beautiful British weather! Well done for finishing the dress! It looks great, and at least it won’t be languishing as an unfinished project for a whole year now!
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It looks wonderful on you! Great job!
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