Red knit dress

This is another self drafted pattern using directions from Design it Yourself Clothes.  It was actually the easiest pattern I’ve done from that book.  It seemed like a few rectangles and I was done whereas with the skirt, shirt, and pants I had to do a lot.  It may have helped that I already had most of the measurements that were needed.

I’m going to leave this dress alone, but I’m going to have to raise the waist on my pattern.  I think when I measured my high shoulder point to my waist, I was still using the normal one and forgetting that I should have been measuring from where I wanted to top to sit to my waist.  Otherwise, I really love this pattern and plan on building on it.

Also, I actually machine sewed this.  It was not my first time sewing knits on my sewing machine, but this dress was certainly the largest project I’ve done.  I used a stretch sewing needle and a stitch that I believe is called an overlock stitch to do my seams.  Even the flowers are appliquéd on by machine.  I used a twin needle on the hem, but my machine didn’t do a pretty zig-zag on the wrong side.  At least it looks neat on the right side though.

It just so happens that this dress fits into this month’s Monthly Stitch Challenge which is “sew stretchy.”  I may not participate next month, but this month is bringing out new skills I never knew I had 🙂

Fabric: t-shirts from the pile I nicked from my boyfriend which means this dress is very very comfortable

What I learned: how to use a twin needle, doing machine appliqué is not easy

For more of my adventures in sewing, you can visit my blog