The Summer Dress - DONE!

Hi all!

We've just come back after marvelous ten days of hiking, driving, hiking some more and traveling the beautiful villages and cities of northern Greece. It's a bit difficult to return to "normal" life after a vacation, I enjoyed to peace and quite of just being the two of us together without all the "white noise" we all have in our lives. I missed the sewing machine, though. Before living I finished the quilt I've been working on since April and also made the rug, but I didn't hem the black Moss skirt and three Stratchona tshirts I made for myself (and took two of them with me to Greece, un-hemmed...). The night before our flight I also cut fabric for couch-cushions so I do have some WIP I can continue while I ease back into my daily routine. 

One garment I manage to finish before our trip (hem included!) was the black knit summer dress I started two months ago. Fortunately we had a few warmer days before the trip so I wore it a couple of times already, and enjoyed it very much. It was a long process even though it's such a simple dress, mostly because the fear of messing it up made me second guess myself every step of the way. 

I used my self-hacked racer-back sports bra pattern as the base for the back. I used a different dress I have (RTW, almost never wear it) to estimate how much length I should add to the back and front pieces. 

In the above picture the original pattern is demonstrated with the length I added for both the front and the back pieces. The ~1" shorter back pieces is supposed to compensate for my sway-back (a problem I have with most commercial patterns). Since I could only estimate the different in length between the front and the back, and didn't know if I'd like the end result, I didn't trace the pattern and cut the fabric using the above pieces. It's a reciprocal process - I have to use the real fabric rather than start with a muslin because it's a knit fabric, but I feel like I can't cut into the real fabric before I'm sure my measurements are correct. At the end I just decided it would be "good enough for a first try" and cut the fabric. As planned I self-lined the bodice using Sarai's method, just as I did with my sports bra. I cut the pieces for the lining a bit smaller all around hoping the smaller lining will make the seam-line roll inwards. The moment I tried on the bodice I realized how silly I was for procrastinating the project. The bodice fits well, I like it, the seam-lines mostly role inwards as I wanted. 

After making the bodice I re-thought the skirt. Originally I planned using the Lady Skater skirt pieces but I didn't want to complicate things by trying to match the Lady Skater pieces with the waist line of "my pattern". Instead, I traced the general shape of an RTW skirt I have, assuming I could make it work (thankfully, knits are so forgiving!).

I added a lot of length to the skirt (at the end I cut 10 cm from the length I added), and make an FBA (=full butt adjustment) to the back piece, by adding more width and length to the center back. I didn't enclosed the waist seam between the bodice shell and lining as planned, as the bodice was a bit too short and I didn't want to risk it too much. 

Initially I thought the bodice was about 2 inches too short; I felt the racer-back didn't balance the fuller skirt and that more length should be added to the bodice in order for the dress to have better proportions. After wearing it for a while though I started changing my mind. I think the quirky proportions work well for a summer dress, and I can also envision this silhouette in floral fabric with cooler colors for autumn (under a cardigan, maybe even a long one, with boots and leggings). I also have some sparkly black knit I would like to turn into a long sleeve version of this dress (like the Lady Skater, only with the fuller skirt I drafted), but I'm not sure if I can pull off the short bodice in a long-sleeve dress as well. Any suggestions? 

Of course I procrastinated the hem for as long as I could. I started with a blind hem but 20 cm later I realized it was too weak for a dress I intend to wear often, and I was too lazy to continue. It took a few minutes with the tween needle to have a proper hem, and while it is not invisible I still prefer the more durable finish on a knit dress. Have your ever tried hemming a knit garment with a blind hem?

All in all i'm happy with this dress and think the silhouette it worth tracing the pattern and giving it another go.

Costs:
pattern: self-drafted
fabric: 1.5 meters = 37.5 ISL = 10 $
thread = ~2.5 shekels = 0.68 $
Total: 40 ISL = 10.68 $

Designing knit summer dresses

Hello all!

I'm slowly working through the kinks of this blog, setting up the design and understanding how to control the visual features. I'm not much of a coder, and have zero experience with HTML so getting to know my way around this place was a bit of a struggle. But I'm getting there!

I'm also figuring out my preferred way for presenting pictures on the blog. I rather dislike the idea of editing my pictures using photoshop. I do use photoshop and illustrator at my work, but there's a thin line between editing pictures to create a clearer image of what I was trying to show, and editing them to the point of creating an alternative reality. I wish I could live in a world where everything is crisp, clear and sharp, but I'm not. I hope to find the middle way and learn in the process.

Now let's talk about summer dresses:

I have this nice thick stable knit fabric I bought recently, I have enough of it to make a summer dress, and I also have the same fabric in black. I want to use the fabric to make summer dresses, and after much thought I think I'll go with the following design:

I never tried a racer-back for a dress but I think it can work well with this fabric. I want to self-line the bodice, so the added structure will balance the casualty of the design.

I'm still not sure what to do with the skirt. for the black dress I want to do a simple 1/2 circle skirt, but for the striped fabric I thought of playing with the design a bit. Initially I thought about adding gathers at the waist, but since the fabric is thick it may be too bulky for me. On the other hand a half circle skirt with stripes may end up "drooping" at the sides seams; Should I try a chevron pattern instead? 

For the bodice I'l use a racer-back sports bra pattern I drafted in the past. I'm aiming for a self-lined bodice with no exposed seams, for that I'll follow collette's tutorial, but I have one more requirement – I want the seam between the shell and the lining to roll inwards, thus I need my lining pieces to be a bit smaller than the shell (to account for the turn of cloth).

While I can cut the lining pieces smaller in the side seams, cutting them 1/8" smaller all around is a bit tricky so I'll try to manipulate the seams as I surge: instead of aligning the shell and the lining, I can pull the lining a bit so it'll end up smaller. I tried this on a recent sports bra and it worked, but I need more practice. 

The lining piece is the bottom piece. instead of aligning the shell and the lining,
I pulled the lining a bit to create an overall smaller piece. 

Let's break the process into stages:

1. Extent the sports bra pattern to create the bodice. adjust the fit (most likely a swayback adjustment and maybe add 1cm in circumference). 

2. Cut the fabric from the previous step to create another sports bra, in order to practice self-lining again.

3. Prepare the bodice for the black dress.

4. Create a half-circle skirt; do an "FBA" (full butt adjustment) on the back piece. 

5. Stitch the skirt so that the seam is sealed between the two layers of the bodice (in theory I know how to do it, but I've never tried it).

6. Repeat for the striped fabric, with modifications (the chevron on the skirt if I choose to go with this design).

 I'm still not sure what to do with the hem. hand stitching is a bit of an overkill for something that casual. Maybe I'll finally try my machine's blind-stitch foot?