Another Hot Pattern

Ok, so I’m not feeling the love for the way this dress turned out but the pattern is fantastic! I had a lot of trouble with this one but it was all my fault. My problems stemmed from my poor choice of fabric — too thin, too stretchy. It is really a t-shirt knit, but I loved the color and forged ahead anyway. It slipped and bunched and skipped stitches like mad and now it seems that the dress is GROWING! I didn’t stay the neckline (already low cut) which is now quite scandalous. Still, I love the cut. Every little lump and bump shows through this thing (see the ridge from the facing?) although I used a knit lining underneath — attached just at the neck and shoulders (see previous post)– which helps a bit. (Thanks goodness for Spanx!)

I also didn’t really think through how attaching the lining would affect my order of construction. I had attached it to the armscye before setting the sleeve, then realized it would get caught at the side seams, so I had to take it apart, attach the sleeves first, do the side seams of the dress and the lining separately, then attach the lining to the armscye seam allowance so that it would hang freely.

You can’t tell from pattern envelope, but this dress features a separate waist section so that the bodice has a lovely nipped in shape to it without all that fabric blousing around your waist when you secure the sewn-in waist ties. I wish HP would include technical drawings of their designs at least on their website. Very often I can tell more about how the dress will fit by looking at the line drawings rather than the photo or illustrations on pattern envelopes. Sometimes the illustration won’t appeal to me at all, but the shapes and seaming shown in the technical drawing will sway me. I will definitely be making this one again. First as is, (except in a heavier, more stable knit) then again in the flared sleeve version (beautifully made several times by Sewing Diva Gigi).