One of my goals for the year was to make myself some properly-fitting modest church dresses and this is the second one. (It helped that we had two family weddings this year - nothing like deadlines to make it happen, right?) The two dresses ended up looking very similar in shape/silhouette, but the first dress was made with woven fabric and this one is a knit. I love that I now have good blocks/patterns for myself for both types of fabric. Drafting skills are handy, but starting from a well patterned block that I know will basically fit is awesome awesome awesome. It is kind of like having a go-to recipe - you can change up an ingredient here or there but you know that the recipe is dependable and it just plain works. I now have 'go-to recipes' for dresses for myself.
For this particular dress I started with my altered Sewaholic Renfrew shirt block from the summer. I changed up the neckline, shortened it (to be a dress bodice rather than a long waisted shirt), made 3/4 sleeves (my current favorite), and drafted a simple A-line skirt. The neckline is faced, the sleeves have a band cuff, and the skirt is hemmed with a twin needle.
It took a few tries to get the correct amount of ease but I purposely started big so that it was just a matter of taking it in a bit here and there. I have a feeling every knit will need a different amount of ease anyway so I'm not too concerned about that adjustment. The fabric came from my local Hancock and is a sturdy ponte knit. Its silky smooth to wear and was pretty easy to cut and sew. I've worn it three times now and have only found one little snag/run spot so I hope it lasts and wears well. Its very comfortable to wear - I've heard people call knit dresses 'secret pajamas' and now I know why. :)
When I was looking for the knit fabric this one jumped out at me as a pretty jewel tone color and I bought it specifically for this dress but without a specific plan for details/trims/embellishment/jazz. I worked on the draft and sewing over the course of a week and when I finished I was quite happy with the overall look and fit, but thought it was a bit ..... blah.
Solid color, simple shaped dress, nothing really exciting. I have been wearing it with a thin black belt and a black sparkly scarf and I think it works well that way. I really need to get better at planning out entire looks before starting the sewing. This dress could have used a different neckline/collar but I didn't decide that until it was done. Anyhow, I do have a nice comfortable versatile new dress that was a relatively easy sew - no complaints there!
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